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Floor Speech

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Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, we now have one week left until the Senate is scheduled to recess for the end of the year. While this year is quickly coming to an end, our work in this body is far from over, especially as it relates to our national security.

Yesterday, the Armed Services Committee, on which I sit, released a text of fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act conference report. This year's NDAA contains critical investments in our servicemembers, our military infrastructure, and our national security at large. Importantly, this year's NDAA contains a 5.2-percent pay raise for our troops--the most significant raise in more than 20 years--and prevents large cuts to servicemembers' overseas cost-of-living adjustment accounts.

The bill also includes several provisions I fought to secure to improve servicemembers' quality of life, including a pilot program to give military secretaries greater authority to replace substandard barracks.

As we work to defend our allies and prevent conflict in the Pacific, this year's NDAA contains a number of provisions to strengthen our posture throughout the Indo-Pacific, including establishing a strategy for missile defense of Hawaii and the Indo-Pacific region, providing greater flexibility to bolster military infrastructure in the region and authorizing funding for multilateral training campaigns with our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific.

As home to Indo-Pacific Command and the tip of the spear of any conflict in the Pacific, Hawaii plays an especially important role in our common defense, a role that is even more meaningful today on the 82nd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

But as is the case across our country, much of the Defense Department's post-World War II infrastructure in Hawaii is in desperate need of repair or replacement. That is why I secured language in the bill directing INDOPACOM to provide a report to Congress on the state of all DOD infrastructure in Hawaii so that we can get serious about modernization.

At a time of global instability, it is essential that we pass this conference report as we have every year for the last 62 years to protect our Nation and reaffirm our global leadership.

The United States plays a key role and a vital role in supporting our allies across the globe. That is why the Senate is also working on a supplemental funding package to provide much needed assistance to our international partners, including two nations defending their rights to exist.

For nearly 2 years, Ukrainians have bravely fought off Putin's unjust and brutal invasion with the support of the United States, support President Zelenskyy himself has said is essential to his country's success. But now, at a critical moment in this war, Republicans are holding up essential aid for Ukraine in exchange for unrelated permanent immigration policy changes. The Biden administration and the Ukrainians have been clear: Time is of the essence. And without United States' aid, Putin will likely be able to gain ground.

Meanwhile, Israel is working to defend itself and its fundamental right to exist in the wake of Hamas's brutal October 7 terror attack. In the days following the attack, there seemed to be bipartisan consensus about the need to get additional aid to Israel as quickly as possible. But just days later, House Republicans opted to tie this much needed assistance to an unrelated partisan domestic policy demand-- gutting IRS tax enforcement. Republicans claim this proposal would offset the cost of aid to Israel, when, in fact, it would cost our government money in terms of lost tax revenues.

The House Republican bill also neglected to include any of the White House's request for funding to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

In addition to funding for Ukraine and Israel, the Senate package also includes language to renew the Compacts of Free Association, or COFA. These compacts--with Palau, the Marshall Islands, and Micronesia--provide the United States exclusive military jurisdiction in these strategic Pacific nations, critical to our national security, in exchange for defense and other benefits for COFA citizens.

It is hard to overstate the importance of these compacts to our operations in the Pacific and to our national security. For the first time in nearly 30 years, these agreements also reinstate access to Federal benefits for COFA citizens, thousands of whom legally live, work, and pay taxes in the United States.

The American people are counting on us. And, perhaps, more importantly, they are looking to us, watching, to see whether we can set aside partisan politics and do our jobs. If we fail to pass this supplemental national security funding package, it will send a message to our allies and adversaries alike that when it matters most, the United States cannot be counted on and this Congress cannot do its job.

This is not a game. There is no backstop here. If we fail to do our jobs, people will die, our allies will suffer losses, our national security will be degraded, and our leadership role as a great nation that defends democratic values will be significantly undermined.

I thank Leader Schumer, Chairman Reed, and those of our Republican colleagues who are working diligently in good faith to find a path forward on all of these priorities because failure is not an option here. With stakes this high, we have to get this done. I implore my colleagues to come to the table so we can do so. The world is watching.

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