Providing for Further Consideration of H.R. National Defense

Floor Speech

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Mr. LYNCH. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of en bloc amendment number two to H.R. 7900, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, which includes three Lynch amendments that ill strengthen our capacity to find our missing service members, increase contracting transparency, and protect veterans from financial fraud.

Amendment No. 235 is a bipartisan amendment that will support the mission of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). I would like to thank my Republican colleague Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska for joining me in cosponsoring this important amendment that simply clarifies DOD authority with regard to the resources it may use to fulfill its mission. Currently, the DPAA may accept gifts such as personal property, services, and funds to expand its capabilities and bring more of our missing service members home, but not solicit them. Under this amendment DPAA may seek out these additional resources as well. We make a promise to every brave American that we send into combat not to forget them, and we must do everything to ensure that the agency tasked with finding them has access to all the means possible to be able to do so.

Amendment No. 236 reauthorizes the Commission on Wartime Contracting to conduct oversight of U.S. contracting and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan and other areas of contingency operations. This Commission has a proven track record of helping reduce waste and fraud in overseas operations contracting. A similar past commission, during its prior iteration from 2008 to 2011, found between $31 billion and $60 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds that were lost due to contract waste, fraud, and abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan. At a time in which all Americans are worried about the state of our economy, their family finances, and what the future may hold, it is vital that we examine how our rebuilding and contract funds were used, and how we can spend more effectively and transparently in the future.

Finally, Madam Speaker, amendment No. 237 would require the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, to establish an Interagency Task Force on Financial Fraud to identify, prevent, and combat financial fraud targeting service members, veterans, and military families. Service members, veterans, and their families are nearly 40 percent more likely to lose money to scams and fraud than the civilian population, and four out of five service members and veterans report they have been targeted by scams directly related to their military service or benefits. In total, service members and veterans reported financial losses of $267 million resulting from scams or fraud in 2021. Earlier today, I chaired a hearing in the National Security Subcommittee that examined this very issue. This task force is a necessary first step to understand what makes our military, veterans and their families so vulnerable, what can be done to better protect them, and how we can help make whole those who have been victimized.

I would like to once again extend my thanks to Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, Ranking Member Mike Rogers, and their staffs for including my amendments in this en bloc amendment and would urge all my colleagues to support it.

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