William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. POCAN. Mr. Speaker, if you ask just about anyone, ``What is America's greatest threat?'' the answer isn't going to be another country or a political ideology. It is going to be a disease: COVID-19.

And with that answer, people will mention the need of help for the jobless, the threat to small businesses, problems paying their rent or mortgage, and the need for healthcare.

What you won't hear will be the need for a Space Force or more nukes or an overseas slush fund for the Pentagon. You certainly won't hear about the need for more cost overruns or fraud and abuse from defense contractors.

But that is exactly what we have. We have increased our military spending almost 20 percent in the last 4 years at a time of relative peace, but we have not kept up with our needs like healthcare, education, and, of course, fighting the coronavirus, yet we spend 90 times more on defense than we do the Centers for Disease Control.

$740 billion for the Pentagon is a lot of money, and too much of it gets wasted on fraud, cost overruns, and outside contractors. We are literally flushing money down the drain, and I mean literally.

Due to a design flaw in the new $13 billion Ford-class aircraft carrier, we are spending $400,000 on specialized acids every time we have to flush and unclog the toilets. I am not making this up.

Almost every major defense contractor has had to pay fines or settlements for fraud or misconduct, all while getting about $1 trillion in defense contracts.

We have spent billions on an amphibious vehicle that sinks due to its own weight, and don't even mention the $10,000 toilet seat covers.

If we cut the defense budget just 10 percent but not our troops, we free up $74 billion to fight global pandemics like COVID-19 and much more.

We need to treat the Pentagon like every other department, and that means with fiscal responsibility. We do that today by trimming 10 percent, $74 billion, to be used, instead, on behalf of the American people, not bloated defense contracts.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support of my amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. POCAN. Lee), my distinguished colleague and colead on this amendment, and a strong voice for peace and justice.
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Mr. POCAN. Jayapal), the co-chair of the CPC, and my good friend.

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