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Floor Speech

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Mr. POCAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of our amendment to reduce the Pentagon's budget.

First, let me thank Congresswoman Lee for her partnership on this issue and thank her for securing our Nation always by pursuing peace first.

Mr. Speaker, $839.3 billion, the amount of the defense spending authorized by this bill, before we include anything of up to the 650 amendments this week, is too much with too little accountability.

We already spend more on defense than China, India, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and South Korea combined. It is more than double the amount of funding that the EPA; Health and Human Services; Departments of Education, Energy, Commerce, State, Housing and Urban Development, and Agriculture all receive combined.

This bill also goes above and beyond what the Department of Defense asked for in its budget request submitted to Congress. Yet, the Department of Defense still can't pass an audit of the funding it receives, a requirement of virtually every other agency.

Let's stop rewarding the building of amphibious vehicles that sink, unready projects like the F-35 that still have hundreds and hundreds of recognized deficiencies that have not been addressed, and Ford-class aircraft carriers that have toilets that cost $400 thousand in chemicals to flush when clogged. Yes, we flush defense dollars down the toilet. Let's fix this.

At some point, spending doesn't actually just make you safer. It is security theater and contractor profiteering.

We need a more modern definition of defense, one that recognizes real national security threats like COVID, cyberattacks, and climate change. But the current defense budget doesn't do that.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this amendment.

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