Providing for Further Consideration of H.R. 1960, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. JACKSON LEE. I thank my good friend, and I thank the manager of the underlying legislation and this rule.

Happy Father's Day to all of the men who serve in the United States military, for this legislation points, in some instances, to the needs of these great servants--and to the women who serve in the United States military as well.

I, too, would have wanted to see the Speier-Gabbard amendment be included. I am glad for an amendment that I submitted to post sexual assault prevention information and to be able to ensure that there are ways of getting resources to those victims, the number of whom we want to see diminished. I am also glad to note that Mr. McGovern's amendment has been put in another amendment by Mr. Conyers that has to do with not using force in Iran. Also, we recognize that our soldiers suffer from PTSD, and I am glad that an amendment has been made to extend the mental health services and counselors for our soldiers.

One that I have been working on for a long time has come to fruition--and I want to thank the Rules Committee and, of course, the Armed Services Committee--which is to collaborate between the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense on finding the biomarkers on triple-negative breast cancer. It will save the lives of so many women.

I had hoped that we could have moved the 1.8 percent salary increase to 2.2 percent. I know that it costs money--yes, it does--but our soldiers are valuable.

Finally, I wish we could have had a thoughtful discussion to restore the trust of Americans around our civil liberties, and to simply rein in the number of private contractors that deal with intelligence gathering, and I intend to introduce legislation.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source