Relating to Provisions of the Border Patrol Agent Pay Reform Act Of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, today the Senate will once again consider the National Defense Authorization Act. This legislation passed the House last week in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 370 to 58. I hope we will have a similarly resounding vote here today.

Today's vote would not be possible without the hard work of Chairman Mac Thornberry, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. It has been a privilege to work alongside him and the gentleman from Washington, Congressman Smith, to produce a defense authorization bill worthy of the troops it supports.

I thank my friend and colleague from Rhode Island, Senator Reed, for his dedicated work on this legislation and his many substantive contributions that made this a better bill.

I thank the majority leader, Senator McConnell, for bringing this legislation to the floor today and for his commitment throughout this process to ensuring we give our military the certainty they need to plan and execute their missions.

For 53 consecutive years, Congress has passed the National Defense Authorization Act. That is a testament to the vital importance of this legislation, which provides the authorities and support necessary for our military to defend the Nation. But perhaps at no time in the last half century has this legislation been so critical. Our Nation confronts the most diverse and complex array of crises since the end of World War II--the rampage of ISIL's terrorist army, Iran's malign activities across the Middle East, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and bloody intervention in Syria, China's continued pattern of assertive behavior toward its neighbors in the Asia-Pacific, and the list goes on, including what appears to be the recent bombing of an airliner over Egypt which apparently caused the loss of 244 lives, apparently an act of terror of monumental consequences.

Rising to the challenges of an increasingly dangerous world requires bold reforms to national defense, and that is what this legislation delivers. The legislation is a reform bill. This legislation delivers the most sweeping reforms to our defense acquisition system in a generation. The NDAA modernizes a 70-year-old military retirement system and extends benefits to hundreds of thousands of service members previously excluded under the old system. The legislation also makes significant reforms to Pentagon headquarters and management to ensure that precious defense resources are focused on our warfighters rather than bloated staffs. The bill identifies $11 billion in excessive and unnecessary spending from that request and reinvests those savings in critical national security priorities, including more fighter aircraft, accelerated shipbuilding, strengthening our cyber defenses, and $300 million in vital assistance to Ukraine to resist Russian aggression.

We did all of this while upholding our commitments to our service members, retirees, and their families. The NDAA reauthorizes over 30 special pays and bonuses, makes military health care more portable, increases access to urgent care facilities, strengthens sexual assault prevention and response, and knocks down bureaucratic obstacles to ensure service members maintain access to the medicines they need as they transition from Active Duty.

Finally, the legislation before us recognizes that a strong national defense requires supporting our friends and allies and responding to common threats. With Vladimir Putin on the march, the NDAA includes $300 million to help Ukraine resist Russian aggression, including $50 million for lethal assistance and counter-artillery radars. As China continues its aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, the NDAA will provide $50 million to assist and train our allies in the region to increase maritime security and the maritime domain awareness. As the Taliban mounts an offensive across Afghanistan, the NDAA authorizes $3.8 billion for the Afghanistan Security Forces Fund to preserve the gains of the past decade and continue to degrade and defeat terrorists who want to attack the United States and our allies.

This is an ambitious piece of legislation, but in the times we live, we cannot afford business as usual in the Department of Defense. To prepare our military to confront our present and future national security challenges, we must champion the cause of defense reform, rigorously root out Pentagon waste, and invest in modernization and next-generation technologies to maintain our military technological advantage. That is what this legislation is all about.

Additionally, I would point out that as our citizenry and our voters are deeply frustrated and angry about our failure to get anything done here in the Congress of the United States, I would at least make the comment that our highest priority and responsibility is defending the Nation. I believe this legislation is an example of working not only on both sides of the aisle but on both sides of the Capitol. I would argue that this is the most significant reform legislation that has been passed in 30 years, but I would also tell my colleagues that this is just the beginning. This is the beginning of a bipartisan effort to reform the Pentagon, to reform the way we do business, to reform our priorities, and to reform the way the Pentagon was structured and our defense was structured. The last time it was reformed was 30 years ago under legislation called Goldwater-Nichols. Obviously, in the last 30 years that world situation has changed dramatically--dramatically.

On a bipartisan basis, working across the aisle and across the Capitol, I can assure my colleagues that next year at about this time, they will be seeing legislation that will try to address the challenges we are now facing in the world--in a more chaotic world than we have seen since the end of World War II. That is not just John McCain's opinion; that is the opinion of every knowledgeable, respected national security expert, ranging from Henry Kissinger, to Madeleine Albright, to Zbigniew Brzezinski, to Brent Scowcroft and others. We have to have a reformed Pentagon to meet the challenges. One great example of that is cyber security. Thirty years ago there were no cyber attacks on the United States of America. Today it is one of the looming challenges we face.

I intend to carry on in the long tradition of this committee in which the Senator from Rhode Island and I have worked in partnership in addressing these new challenges and these grave challenges to America's security.

I am proud of this legislation. Could we have done more? Yes. Were there different areas to which perhaps we should have paid more attention? Perhaps. But I would argue that this is the most significant reform legislation in the last 30 years.

I thank my friend and colleague from Rhode Island.

I yield the floor.

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