Conference Report on H.R. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand here today in favor of the Conference Report on the Fiscal Year 24 NDAA. This conference report is the result of bipartisan efforts to strengthen our national defense while supporting our military members, families, and communities. I would like to thank Senator Reed, Senator Wicker, Chairman Rogers, and Ranking Member Smith for their leadership throughout the entire process to produce this bipartisan bill.

I would also like to thank Chairman Waltz of the Readiness Subcommittee for his partnership, Jeanine Womble the readiness PSM, my MLA Rob Hurd, and my Defense Fellow Taylor Brunstad. I am proud of the work we have done to protect the Readiness of our Armed forces. This bill continues our work, along with our Senate colleagues, to support military families by providing more childcare centers, protect basic healthcare rights for women service member, support energy resiliency on our bases, increase base pay to retain and recruit top talent, and demand DoD accountability and transparency on spending to prevent wasteful use of taxpayer dollars.

It is of vital importance to me to support our servicemembers and their families at bases like Travis Air force Base and ensure they have the housing, training, equipment, and quality of life they need and deserve. I am proud to continue my work to serve the men and women in my district, and to serve the brave men and women volunteering to protect our freedom. While this bill is a strong bipartisan effort to support the military, there is still more to be done and I look forward to building on these efforts in the years ahead.

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2670, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024.

Congress has the solemn duty to ensure that those who wear the uniform of the United States--and those civilians who provide logistical and operational support--have the equipment, training, and resources needed to carry out and complete their mission.

And we must never forget that a grateful nation has a sacred obligation, in the words of President Lincoln, ``to care for him who has borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan.''

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Chairman Rogers, Ranking Member Smith, and the committee staff for their diligent work that resulted in this bipartisan, bicameral report, which includes my legislation, the Foreign Extortion Prevention Act.

I was pleased to work with Senator Whitehouse to help negotiate the inclusion of this legislation, which will be the most significant international criminal anti-corruption legislation since 1977.

The Foreign Extortion Prevention Act will finally enable U.S. law enforcement to indict foreign kleptocrats for extorting U.S. businesses and Americans.

The harms caused by foreign bribe demands are innumerable and include foreign officials who demand bribes and extort individuals in furtherance of trafficking of children and drugs into and out of the United States.

These crimes largely go unpunished.

With the passage of FEPA (through the NDAA), however, those who violate the provisions of FEPA could face a criminal fine of up to $250,000 and a prison sentence of up to 15 years.

As reported by Transparency International U.S. in May 2023, a recent survey by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development found that foreign officials who demand or receive bribes are only criminally punished by their home governments some 20 percent of the time.

As many of you are aware, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) prohibits U.S. companies from bribing foreign officials.

But it does not protect U.S. companies from predatory foreign officials who solicit bribes--and then partner with the Chinese state- owned enterprises (SOEs) that are more than willing and able to pay them.

China does not appear to have ever enforced its own version of the FCPA, despite the Communist Party's continued crackdowns on companies it perceives to be corrupt or disloyal.

FEPA, by making it a crime for a foreign official to demand a bribe from a U.S. company, would therefore not only help to level the playing field for U.S. companies--but it will also deter and hold accountable corrupt officials who, by betraying their oaths for Beijing's bribes, become complicit in the Communist Party's global campaign to subvert rule of law and upend the security order.

By joining with the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and other democratic allies who have already enacted similar legislation to protect their own businesses, the United States can set an alternative example to China's use of corruption as a tool of foreign policy--one that, in promoting honest competition and rule of law, will ultimately benefit our national security.

In order to restore competitiveness, the United States must double- down on the rule of law.

The kleptocrats that extort U.S. companies also cheat their own people out of economic development and prosperity.

The United States must stand with these victims of kleptocracy.

This means combating the demand side of bribery--we must make kleptocrats think twice before they demand a bribe.

Already, the U.S. Department of Justice is attempting to deter the demand side of bribery with the tools that it has.

However, without a specific authority to prosecute foreign extortion, we are leaving the DOJ without the key tool that it needs to achieve this goal.

It is long overdue that we expand our foreign bribery laws to capture the malfeasance of foreign kleptocrats--in this age of globalization, we can wait no longer.

Please join me in passing the FY2024 National Defense Authorization act, which includes my legislation, the Foreign Extortion Prevention Act, which protects rule-abiding companies, and stands up for the victims of kleptocracy around the world.

It is time that we expand our foreign bribery laws to capture the malfeasance of foreign kleptocrats--in this age of globalization, we can wait no longer.

This legislation will protect rule-abiding companies and stand up for the victims of kleptocracy around the world.

So, I look forward to the NDAA being signed by the President of the United States and becoming law.

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