Providing for Consideration of H.R. 4660, Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015; And Providing for Consideration of H.R. 4435, Howard P. "Buck" McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. NUGENT. Madam Speaker, I want to thank my friend from Georgia (Mr. Woodall). We came in to this Congress together a couple of years back, and I have had the great opportunity to serve with him on the Rules Committee. And being placed on Armed Services last year was a great opportunity for me to be in the process of crafting how our military establishment moves forward.

Madam Speaker, in addition to providing an open rule for the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, H. Res. 585 provides for 1 hour of general debate on this year's National Defense Authorization Act. It also makes in order the first of many amendments that are going to be coming forward in the debate over the next couple of days.

Because the Rules Committee traditionally does two rules, one for the underlying legislation and the second for the amendments, which I am going to bring forward tomorrow--as we have heard, we have had over 300 amendments come forward on the NDAA this year. My understanding is that is a record. Typically, it is around 200-and-some. This year, it was over 300.

So we are going to have the opportunity to hear arguments on both sides as to why an amendment should pass or why an amendment should fail, and that is a good thing. That is what this body is designed to do, to have a dialogue and a discussion back and forth about the merits of a particular issue.

I have three sons who currently serve this Nation. One is in the National Guard, and two are in the Active Duty Army. So when we craft an NDAA, it is extremely important to me to make sure that our men and women have all the resources they need if they are called to go into harm's way. It is not their call to go. It is the President's call, the Commander in Chief's call in regards to whether or not our servicemen and -women go off to fight.

The gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Woodall) mentioned earlier about all the partisanship in this place. The NDAA, when it passed through committee, had over 100 amendments within committee that passed and were attached to the NDAA, amendments from both sides of the aisle, Democrat and Republican alike, because there was great discussion within the committee about those amendments. Some didn't pass, but the vast majority, over 100, did pass, and you see it in the body of the National Defense Authorization Act today. That says an awful lot.

The National Defense Authorization Act has passed 52 times, 52 consecutive times, and we are hoping that this is the 53rd consecutive time that it passes in this body. Mr. Woodall was correct. It passed out of committee 61-0. I would suggest to you, I don't think I have heard that number before in other committees.

While there are disagreements on how things should work in the NDAA, disagreements about priorities and how things should be moved around and where our money should be spent, at the end of the day, we came together as Democrats and Republicans and put forward a piece of legislation that we can be proud of, that was actually named after the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Chairman Buck McKeon.

Madam Speaker, I have had the opportunity to help craft the NDAA. I believe that it is a good step in the right direction. We have heard a lot of things about sequestration in the coming year, and we need to be very cognizant of what that will do to our military, our readiness, and our ability to meet the demands that this country could call upon our military to meet.

This legislation takes care of that 1 percent of Americans who step forward and raise their hand and say: If you need me, I am there; if you need me to fight your fight, I am there. That is why this legislation is so important. It protects the members of our military, the 1 percent of America, Americans who stand up and say: I am there to protect you. That is why this legislation is so important.

The benefit of this is that we have a strong, well-run military, that we have a military that is trained and equipped for the battles to come. And I will suggest to you that we have not done a very good job of figuring out what our next battle will be. As a matter of fact, we have had members of the military, flag officers, high-ranking folks that have been involved in the military for 30-plus years say we have never gotten it right once; not one time have we gotten it right in regards to what our future conflicts are going to look like. So I would suggest to you that we need to make sure that we are on top of it now.

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Mr. NUGENT. Well, I appreciate that. I don't know that I am expert, but I certainly have the heart. I have the heart to make sure that America is safe.

It is a constitutional responsibility that this body make sure that we have a strong defense for our homeland. It is a huge responsibility, and it is not one that is taken lightly. As you can see in the vote that was taken in the House Armed Services Committee--61-0--it is one that is shared by all Members.

We have seen the threats. Unfortunately, not everybody knows what the threats are. But if you look at and read the news, whether it is Russia today resurging its influence within Europe, whether it is China, or whether it is Iran or North Korea, there are so many players out there that have ill intentions to our people, to this Nation.

We have Africa, a continent that has seen a huge increase in violence that is associated with al Qaeda. We have threats around this world. To those who would say this world is safer than it was before, I would suggest to you it is not. So I will do anything that I can do to lend credence to our military fighting force to make sure we have the strongest, most-equipped, and best-trained force. It is what gave my wife and me solace when our older son was deployed to Afghanistan. It gave us solace when our two sons were deployed to Iraq, that we knew they were the best fighting force out there. That gave them the greatest opportunity to come home safe to us.

Last night in the Rules Committee, we had a young man, a double amputee, who is a proud, proud member of the 82nd Airborne's 4th Combat Brigade. Specialist Stefan LeRoy was in our midst last night as we talked about the NDAA in the Rules Committee. There is not a more powerful statement than that young man sitting right in front of me at the dais looking at us to make sure that we provide for them, for that 1 percent I talked about earlier. That is what makes this all worthwhile, in my estimation, that we do the right thing.

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