Motion to Instruct Conferees on H.R. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024

Floor Speech

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Ms. SLOTKIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call out the amendments that have been forced into the Pentagon budget over the past month-and- a-half.

When this Pentagon budget was voted on in our committee, it passed 58-1. I voted for it, as did many of my peers on this side of the aisle and the other side of the aisle.

When it left our committee, it became a wish list of the rightwing culture war agenda. If you take a 40,000-foot view of what is going on here, it becomes very clear. The other side of the aisle is not going to stop until there is a Federal ban on all abortions, in every State, in every circumstance. Our last speaker made it clear.

A bill that is typically bipartisan has now become a prisoner of this debate. Let's review the bidding.

We have seen the other side of the aisle put in unnecessary abortion restrictions in minor appropriations, in veterans' bills targeting female veterans. A single Senator is holding up 300 critical military nominations because servicemembers want to get leave to get the care that they need, and the NDAA in its current form is targeting servicewomen specifically.

Make no mistake, the United States should hear that in every place, in every possible window. The people on the other side of the aisle are going to continue their 50-year pledge to get rid of all abortions everywhere. They are open about that. While those of them who are in competitive elections may try to mealymouth what they have done for the past 20 years, we need to hear what they are telling us.

The other side of the aisle is taking national security issues hostage for their unrelenting fight on this issue so that no woman can have a right to an abortion if she has been raped, if she is the victim of incest, or for a simple miscarriage, which one out of three women in America have had.

I know the other side of the aisle is not listening on this issue. The American people need to hear it loud and clear. They want a Federal ban on abortion.

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