A Troubling Amendment to the Ndaa

Floor Speech

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Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to point out just one of the very troubling and extreme amendments in the NDAA, specifically Mr. Green's amendment which would effectively cut all Federal Government support to filmmakers who distribute films in China.

This amendment takes a page right out of 1950s McCarthyism, and it will devastate the film industry. It requires the DOD to create a blacklist of studios that often, by necessity, have made changes to films in anticipation of distribution in China.

It would decide, without any evidence necessary, to withhold assistance for filmmakers who edit sexual or violent scenes to make films more appropriate for children. Further, it would ensure that these American filmmakers can no longer film on U.S. public lands or access resources paid for by American taxpayers.

Filmmaking is a First Amendment right, and this amendment attacks that right by allowing the DOD to censor content and editorial viewpoints of American films. The Green amendment could also push film production overseas.

In my home State of California, this amendment would devastate an industry that brings in $226 billion alone in jobs and economic activities.

Sadly, this amendment is just one of many dangerous and extreme MAGA amendments attached to what has been a historically bipartisan bill. This amendment would hurt American industries and workers, and it does not belong in the NDAA.

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