National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. DesJARLAIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the Pocan amendment. A 10 percent cut to this budget will leave America vulnerable to our adversaries.

The United States is facing daily threats from China, Iran, Russia, North Korea, and a whole host of other bad actors. We must fully fund our military so the U.S. has every capability necessary to deter those who wish to do us harm.

The fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act has bipartisan support from the House Armed Services Committee already. With the approved budget on the floor today being $23.9 billion more than the bare-bones budget that originally came through. There is a reason why the improved budget was approved in a bipartisan vote of the committee by an overwhelming 57-2 margin.

Modernization is an important part of our military strategy. Our military leaders have spent the past year sounding the alarm and testimony before Congress that our top competitors, Russia and China, are working at a startling pace to close the gap between themselves and the U.S. in areas like nuclear modernization. In other areas, like hypersonic capabilities, they may have already surpassed us.

This budget is absolutely necessary in order to maintain advantages over our enemies as technology continues to evolve and change rapidly. Now is not the time to recklessly cut what we must spend to protect our country and provide for our men and women in uniform.

We must ensure our brave men and women in the armed services have every resource necessary to keep the American people safe.

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