National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. DesJARLAIS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to express my support for the National Defense Authorization Act. The bill before us today represents a much-improved effort over the Biden-Harris administration's proposed budget.
There is no more important job than providing for the defense of our Nation. The specter of threats from an aggressive China, a revitalized Russia, and radical Islamic terrorist states demand that we maintain a strong national defense readiness and posture.
This NDAA will give a much-deserved and needed pay raise and expanded benefits to members of our armed services. We are making investments to ensure our military is the best equipped and trained in the world, with a focus on American jobs and our domestic manufacturing base.
We are also investing in important new technologies like quantum computing, hypersonic weapons, and autonomous systems.
I am proud to say that Arnold Air Force Base, the University of Tennessee Space Institute, Vanderbilt University, Fort Campbell Army Base, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and other Tennessee stakeholders will receive the funds that they need to carry out vital operations for our United States military.
That said, the bill is not perfect. I am disappointed in House Democrats for preventing my ``no first use'' amendment from coming to the floor for a vote. In hearings before our committee, our military leadership emphasized that a ``no first use'' policy is a limiting strategic mistake, and a number of our allies have expressed these concerns directly to me as well. We should never tip our strategic plans to our adversaries.
It is also disappointing that those on the other side of the aisle have taken a bill intended to improve our military and muddled it with attempts to score political points.
While I don't support these poison pills, I am hopeful that my colleagues will remove them during conference before its final passage.
That said, we must move forward with this legislation. I support making it stronger, avoiding nongermane political issues, and getting it signed into law for our brave men and women in uniform.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source