Source: United States Senator for Oklahoma James Inhofe
U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today spoke on the Senate floor to urge his colleagues to support the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act ahead of the Senate vote.
As Prepared For Delivery:
I am very pleased the Senate is finally voting today on the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.
There’s an old document that no one reads anymore called the Constitution. It tells us what we’re supposed to be doing here: national defense.
That’s why Congress has passed a defense authorization bill for 60 years in a row. This year will be number 61.
This bill continues a long track record of bipartisan support for our troops and our national security.
Every year, we come together —House and Senate, Republicans and Democrats — and put our differences aside, build this bill together, and show our service members that we support them.
That’s exactly what we did this year. It looked a little different this year, because the Senate didn’t take up our bill until after Veterans Day — one of the latest starts ever.
We can’t let that happen again. This is the most important bill we do all year, and it shouldn’t be left to the last minute.
That’s especially the case right now. We face threats like I’ve never seen before in my lifetime. China and Russia are growing and modernizing their militaries at rates we’ve never seen before. They’re using their new technology to menace their neighbors.
We’re seeing Russia build up forces on the Ukrainian border, most likely intending to invade early next year. And now, we’ve seen evidence that China’s testing hypersonic missiles — technology we don’t have yet — and growing their nuclear arsenal.
At the same time, following a disastrous withdrawal, terrorist organizations are resurging in Afghanistan. Our allies and partners are questioning our credibility and commitment because of this debacle.
Iran continues to expand its nuclear program, and North Korea continues its own provocations.
In short — we have no shortages of challenges to our security and military supremacy.
The security situation with both China and Russia has gotten far worse since the Senate Armed Services Committee first advanced this bill back in July. It’s gotten worse even over the last few days—not to mention weeks.
I can’t think of a more necessary bill to pass right now than this defense authorization bill.
I worked together with Chairman Reed, Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Rogers, and the Armed Services Committees in both chambers, to build a bill that will help us respond to all these threats.
We listened to all of our colleagues — both on our committees and off — to ensure we included as many of your priorities as possible.
Our final product is a responsible, bipartisan path forward that strengthens national security and gives our troops the resources, training, equipment and benefits they need and deserve.
The first and most important way we do that is by boosting the defense topline by $25 billion above the president’s request. Now, I know defense isn’t his top priority, but we showed it is a bipartisan priority in this Congress.
In fact, it was the 2018 NDS Commission report — authored by six Democrats, and six Republicans — that said we need to grow our defense budget if we want to meet the threats we face. A budget cut like the president wanted isn’t going to get us there.
In total, this bill authorizes almost $778 billion for the Department of Defense and for nuclear programs at the Department of Energy.
This increase supports many of the military’s “unfunded priorities” — things they need that President Biden’s inadequate budget couldn’t meet—plus things Congress agrees the department must fund in critical areas.
We provided a 35 percent increase above the president’s budget for military construction — the largest MilCon budget in a decade.
We also provide a $4.7 billion increase for shipbuilding, allowing our military to purchase five new battle-force ships, which will be key in our priority theater, the Indo-Pacific.
We bolster support to key allies — like Taiwan and Ukraine.
This year’s NDAA actually increases funding for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative by $50 million, giving Ukraine $300 million total to defend itself in the face of a possible — and really, a likely — Russian invasion.
This bill includes strong bipartisan support for our nuclear deterrent, which is the cornerstone of our national security. We fully fund nuclear modernization, which is a top priority for our military, and solidify support for a key leg of the nuclear triad, the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent.
The bill works at every turn to maintain our military supremacy, or to spur us to catch up in the areas where we’ve fallen behind.
One area where we do that is cybersecurity — this bill creates a whole-of-government, public-private partnership to detect and disrupt our adversaries’ cyber operations.
We also accelerate innovation in key, emerging technologies, like artificial intelligence, hypersonic weapons, quantum computing, and 5G.
Our bill takes numerous steps to harden our industrial base and remove Russia and China from our national security supply chain.
Of course, our top priority this year — and any year — is our troops, the brave men and women who volunteer to lay their lives on the line for our country.
This year’s bill gives them a well-deserved pay raise, improves their health care, housing and leave policy, and supports their families, who sacrifice just as much as they do.
It prevents service members from being dishonorably discharged for refusing the coronavirus vaccine — in the nick of time too, since we’re seeing the first discharges this week.
It’s also important to note that we kept provisions out of this bill provisions that could have jeopardized passage of this critical bill, when we simply don’t have time to spare.
This is a good bill. It’s not perfect, it’s not the bill I would have written on my own, but I’m still proud to vote for it today.
Before we close, I’d like to thank the good people whose hard work got this bill to the floor.
I couldn’t be happier to have Chairman Reed by my side through all of this. I’m proud to call him a friend. He’s fought day in and day out for this bill, and for our troops.
I also want to thank all the members of the committee.
Of course, we wouldn’t be here today without the committee staff.
They’ve worked tirelessly throughout the whole year — including on Thanksgiving — on this bill.
Senator Reed has thanked the majority staff already, and I associate myself with his remarks. I’d like to recognize the minority staff now
To start with: John Wason, the minority staff director, along with Liz King, the majority staff director.
On the minority staff for the committee: Rick Berger, Tom Goffus, Scott Richardson, Greg Lilly, Marta Hernandez, Jennie Wright, Adam Barker, Allen Edwards, Katie Magnus, Sean O’Keefe, Brad Patout, Jason Potter, Brian Slattery, Katie Sutton, Eric Trager, Adam Trull, T.C. Williams, Robert Winkler, and Annie Caputo.
From my staff: Luke Holland, Dan Hillenbrand, Don Archer, Dan Holder, Sam Trizza, Esther Salters, Jake Johnson, Jake Hinch, Alexandra Slocum, Victor Sarmiento, Dixon Yonan, Leacy Burke, Laurie Fitch, and Naomi Walker.
And the hard-working floor staff: Robert Duncan, Chris Tuck, Tony Hanagan, Katherine Foster, Brian Canfield and Max Boyd, and Maddie Sanborn.
I’m very grateful for their service.
Don’t forget: This is only half the battle. After this, we still must find a deal on the appropriations bills to make sure we give our troops these resources – and to get there we need adequate defense spending, while maintaining legacy riders and eliminating poison pills.
But today, I encourage all of my colleagues to support this year’s National Defense Authorization Bill. Let’s extend our 60-year track record of getting this bill done and let’s tell our troops that we love and support them.