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

Floor Speech

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Mr. GALLAGHER. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the bill.

As we look across the world, deterrence is collapsing, and we in this body need to do everything possible to restore it.

As chairman of the Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation Subcommittee, I am proud of many of the provisions that we got into the bill that will spark innovation across the Pentagon, strengthen offensive and defensive cybersecurity, and ensure our warfighters are equipped with the cutting-edge technology that they need today.

Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman for working with the select committee on the CCP to include a lot of our recommendations, from enhanced cyber cooperation with and prioritization of aid to Taiwan to detailed analyses of China's defense spending.

At the end of this process, the chairman and the ranking member can proudly say that we will have done our work on the Armed Services Committee. We have authorized what we needed to authorize. That is a testament to their leadership and the spirit of the bipartisanship they have set.

However, we also need to appropriate money to the Defense Department. We have not done that. We are having a debate about a supplemental, which begs the question: What are we supplementing?

If we don't appropriate, we will lose $37 billion.

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