National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017

Floor Speech

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Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Chairman, I thank Chairman Thornberry, Ranking Member Smith, and all of our staff for tirelessly working on this very incredibly important bill. Also I would like to thank Mr. Turner. For the past 4 years, he has been the chairman and I have been the ranking member of the Subcommittee for Tactical Air and Land Forces. It has been a pleasure.

The National Defense Authorization Act, of course, is a must-pass bill. We have passed it for the past 53 years, and I am really honored to have been part of it for the past 20.

The NDAA is the annual piece of law that puts the necessary resources and funding to ensure that our servicemembers are fully equipped and trained to defend our country here and abroad. All of our military systems--air, land, water, and space--are authorized by this legislation. It provides new opportunities for the Department of Defense to engage in innovative research and development to ensure that America has the most technologically advanced military. Of course, that also bleeds over into the civilian world with all of our new technologies.

The NDAA makes sure that servicemembers and their families are provided with the necessary support and resources as they sacrifice their lives to defend their country. Just last Friday, I had the opportunity to be in Erie, Pennsylvania, where our son was commissioned as a second lieutenant and officer into the U.S. Army artillery. So I am pretty excited to continue to support our military families because we are one.

This bill also provides provisions to support women in the military-- making equipment that actually fits them, for example--and we put in language for parental leave for our servicemembers for up to 14 days.

It increases funding for nuclear nonproliferation, something which I am an adamant supporter of, trying to eliminate nuclear threats for the future, for our grandchildren and their children.

It increases funding for K-12 STEM education because, again, we have to invest in our future, and the future of education is equal to our national security. The legislation also provides funding and resources to counterterrorism, including those threats from ISIL.

On our particular subcommittee, we included some significant oversight legislation. Everybody thinks about passing laws, but the reality is that one of the main things that we have to do as Members of Congress is to oversee what is really happening in programs and with the money of our taxpayers. So we included the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's software oversight, the F-18 Super Hornet oxygen system, and a multiyear procurement authority for the Army's helicopters.

However, the successful passage of this important legislation is at risk because, first, it doesn't comply with the Republicans' Budget Control Act because it is $18 billion over the budget caps. Secondly, it includes a number of discriminatory provisions, such as language that would allow government contractors to discriminate against the LGBT community.

There are many things that we need to do to ensure that this bill can be, in a bipartisan way, passed by this House.

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