National Pulse Memorial

Floor Speech

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Mr. LANGEVIN. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the National Defense Authorization Act. I begin by congratulating and thanking Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Rogers, as well as my counterparts on the CITI Subcommittee, Ranking Member Banks and former Ranking Member Stefanik for their bipartisan collaboration in helping to craft a national defense bill for the 61st consecutive year.

Thanks to the work of my subcommittee, this legislation includes a significant increase in early-stage research. Our research enterprise has always ensured our technology superiority. It is how we won the space race. Today, as the battlefield expands into cyberspace and outer space, we find ourselves facing a more aggressive Russia and China. I am proud that Congress has unlocked funds for hypersonics defense, directed energy, quantum computing, machine learning, and biotechnology so that we never send our war fighters into a fair fight.

Madam Speaker, I am most proud that this bill includes many recommendations from the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, including funds to accelerate the deployment of new technology to the war fighter. I am also proud that in our first year as a subcommittee, the Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems, we have made significant investments in our cybersecurity forces, set a course for improved cybersecurity governance within the Department, and continue to strengthen the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The NDAA also fully funds key national security platforms, the Virginia-class and Columbia-class submarine programs. I thank the Rhode Islanders who build our Nation's submarines and make our country safer. Finally, this bill funds installation resilience projects to address the ongoing threat from climate change.

These achievements would not have been possible without the work of my subcommittee staff and personal staff.

I thank Michael Hermann, Josh Stiefel, Troy Nienberg, Payson Ruhl, Caroline Goodson, and Juliann Hitt, and former staffers Bess Dopkeen and Caroline Kehrli.

Madam Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this bipartisan commitment to national security.

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