Providing for Further Consideration of H. R. 1735, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016

Floor Speech

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Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for yielding but also for his tremendous leadership on the Committee on Rules and also just in terms of making sure that we, as Members of Congress, do our job. So thank you very much.

I rise in strong opposition to this rule and to the bill. I offered three bipartisan amendments to H.R. 1735, the National Defense Authorization Act, and I am very disappointed to say that, once again, two of my amendments to address the Authorization for Use of Military Force were not made in order. The first, offered with Representative Walter Jones, would have repealed the 2001 blank check for endless war, which has been used more than 30 times, mind you, to justify military action around the world.

The other, that I also offered with Representative Jones, would have removed the unnecessary 2002 Iraq Authorization for Use of Military Force that continues to be on the books. This is years after the White House has said they no longer needed it and encouraged Congress to repeal it.

Mr. Speaker, it is past time for Congress to live up to its constitutional obligations in matters of war and peace. We need to rip up that 2001 blank check for endless war, and we need to repeal the unnecessary 2002 Iraq AUMF instead of leaving it on the books indefinitely.

I do want to thank the committee for making in order a commonsense, bipartisan amendment offered by Representatives BURGESS, SCHAKOWSKY, and myself that would require the DOD to rank all departments and defense agencies in order of how advanced they are in their audit readiness. As the only Federal agency that has yet to complete an audit, the Pentagon has never been held accountable for the potential loss of billions of dollars to waste, fraud, and abuse; so we need to bring vital congressional oversight and accountability to the Pentagon and to ensure that the Pentagon follows the law.

Let me also just address a few more troubling provisions in this bill. This bill authorized $715 million to train and equip Iraqi forces and an additional $600 million for Syrian opposition forces. That is more than a billion dollars for the now 8-month-long war against ISIL.

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Ms. LEE. Let me go back and remind you how much that is. That is more than a billion dollars for the now 8-month-long war against ISIL. That is a war that Congress has yet to debate and authorize.

Again, I call on Speaker Boehner to make Congress do its job and to schedule this critical debate.

I want to thank Congressman McGovern for offering a privileged resolution. It is really a shame that we must do this, but we must take our heads out of the sand here and be responsible to our constituents and our country.

This bill also funnels $89 billion into the Pentagon slush fund known as the overseas contingency account; $38 billion of this would go back into the base budget to avoid the budget cuts. This is simply unacceptable. Instead of continuing to use budget gimmicks to further bloat the Pentagon budget, Congress should be working to ensure accountability and transparency by forcing an audit of the Pentagon.

I urge my colleagues to support the Burgess-Schakowsky-Lee amendment and to oppose the underlying bill. It is time for Congress to stop the policy of endless war and to bring some accountability to the Pentagon.

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