Inhofe Votes to Advance NDAA in Senate, Announces Oklahoma Endorsements of Key Provisions

Statement

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), today voted to advance the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2017 and praised the adoption of his commissary amendment to the legislation. The bill will now be conferenced with the House-passed NDAA legislation.

"Congress has sent an NDAA to the president for 54 consecutive years to provide critical resources to our men and women in uniform as well as their families," said Inhofe. "I voted to advance this legislation once again because it authorizes necessary funding for our national security, focuses on increasing combat readiness, institutes efficiency and cost-saving reforms and supports our service members and their families. Thanks to strong, bipartisan support for my Senate amendment, the NDAA now also protects the access and cost-savings our military members and their families receive from the commissary benefit.

"There are a few areas of concern that I will be working to get addressed during conference. My primary concern is that the Senate NDAA underfunds our military. Chairman McCain's $18 billion amendment to block defense cuts and restore last year's defense spending level failed largely due to partisan politics. His amendment came with no strings attached and would have helped to address ongoing military readiness shortfalls. The world has only gotten more dangerous and more uncertain over the past year. By continuing to cut our defense spending, we are failing our troops, as well as their families, and failing our national security. We are sending a message of weakness to our enemies and our allies when we aren't investing enough in our force structure, training, and equipment to maintain required readiness levels. In the mean time, countries like Russia and China are outpacing the U.S. in their investments in military equipment and training. Because the Republican-led House of Representatives provided additional defense funds, I will be working to ensure their efforts remain intact in conference. I am also disappointed that this legislation includes funding for designing and planning of a U.S. facility to house Gitmo detainees, which will help the president solidify his legacy of closing Gitmo. Detainees released under President Obama's watch have gone back to the fight and killed Americans. The last thing we should be doing is working to bring the most dangerous of our enemies to the United States, a Gitmo North. In conference, I will be supporting the stronger House-language on Gitmo and working to remove unnecessary Senate language requiring women to register for the draft."

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