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Floor Speech
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Mr. GALLEGO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 7900, the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2023.
I congratulate my colleagues on the House Armed Services Committee for bringing forward a bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act for the 62nd consecutive year.
I especially want to thank Ranking Member Trent Kelly of the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations for his leadership and contributions to this bill. I also thank the subcommittee staff-- Shannon, Craig, William, and Patrick--for their tireless efforts, as well as my personal office staff members Michelle and Charlie.
This year's bill contains crucial investments in America's allies and partners to address the threat the world faces from Vladimir Putin, including $225 million for the Baltic Security Initiative, which I started last year with my friend and cochair of the House Baltic Caucus, Congressman Don Bacon.
This bill also takes historic strides to prevent and mitigate civilian harm by creating mechanisms to increase transparency and accountability at the Department.
As chairman of the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations, I am proud of this bill's critical investments in intelligence modernization and special operations forces. Specifically, our bill invests in agility across the defense intelligence enterprise, protects our warfighters, and builds pandemic preparedness by adding $91 million to the Chemical and Biological Defense Program's top priority of accelerating the Department's biodefense capabilities.
Our bill provides the resources to ensure Special Operations Command has the hardware it needs to conduct our Nation's most sensitive operations.
This year's bill strengthens oversight of intelligence collection, information operations, and irregular warfare to ensure our intelligence professionals and special operations forces are positioned to prevail in the complex threat environment they face every day.
Colleagues, in addition to meeting the most pressing security challenges we face today, this bill supports our servicemembers with a 4.6 percent pay raise, codifies the $15 minimum wage for all workers, includes $111 million in research activities at HBCUs, and improves women's healthcare.
This an important bill, and I urge my colleagues to support it.
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