National Defense Authorization Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, last fall, Republicans promised that if we were elected to the majority in the Senate, we would get the Senate working again. A big part of that is getting the appropriations process working again. When the Senate is functioning properly, 12 separate appropriations bills are considered individually in the Appropriations Committee and then brought to the Senate floor for debate and amendment.

This process is designed to allow Senators to carefully examine programs and consider the best and most responsible way to distribute funding. But the appropriations process has not worked that way for a while. Too often, over the past few years, the majority of the year's appropriations bills have been thrown together in one catchall funding bill, greatly reducing Senators' ability to take a hard look at spending and to ensure that funds are being allocated responsibly.

Republicans are determined to change that. We started the appropriations process by passing a balanced budget resolution for the first time in over 10 years. This week, we continue the process with the National Defense Authorization Act, which authorizes funding for our Nation's defense and our men and women in uniform. This authorization bill is the first step in the appropriations process for defense funding under what we call regular order.

This legislation accomplishes a number of important things. It authorizes funding for our military at the President's requested level of $612 billion. It also eliminates waste and inefficiencies. Specifically, the bill targets $10 billion in wasteful and unnecessary spending and redirects those funds to military priorities such as funding for aircraft and weapons systems and modernization of Navy vessels.

The bill also focuses heavily on reform. The military's current process for acquiring new equipment and technologies is inefficient and bureaucratic. It wastes our Nation's resources and, even more importantly, it reduces our military readiness by delaying the acquisition of essential weapons, equipment, and technology. The National Defense Authorization Act introduces broad reforms to modernize and streamline the acquisitions process, which will significantly improve the military's ability to access technology and equipment when it needs it.

The act also implements a number of reforms to the Pentagon's administrative functions. Over the past few years, Army Headquarters staff has increased while combat personnel have been cut. Army Headquarters staff increased 60 percent over the past decade, yet the Army is currently cutting brigade combat teams.

From 2001 to 2012, the Department of Defense's civilian workforce grew at five times the rate of Active-Duty military. Prioritizing bureaucracy at the expense of our preparedness and our Active-Duty military is not an acceptable use of resources.

The Defense authorization bill that we are considering changes the emphasis at the Department of Defense from administration to operations, which will help ensure that our military personnel receive the training they need and that our military is ready to meet any threats that arise. Finally, this bill overhauls our military retirement system. The current military retirement system limits retirement benefits to soldiers who served for 20 years or more, which eliminates 83 percent of those who have served, including many veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The National Defense Authorization Act replaces this system with a modern retirement system that would extend retirement benefits to 75 percent of our servicemembers. The bill before us today is a strong bill. It is the product of bipartisan efforts. It authorizes funding for our troops at the level requested by the President and provides key reforms that will strengthen our Nation's defense and improve training benefits and quality of life for our servicemembers.

Supporting this legislation should be a no-brainer. Incredibly, however, the President has threatened to veto this important legislation. His reason is that the President does not want our military to receive the increased levels of funding proscribed in this bill unless the President's nondefense funding priorities receive an increased level of funding.

That is right. Apparently, President Obama is willing to hold up funding for our Nation's military until Congress provides more funding for agencies such as the IRS and the EPA. Well, the President can certainly make his case to Congress when it comes to funding government agencies. Holding troop funding hostage for political purposes is reckless and irresponsible. If that were not enough, the White House is busy lobbying Senate Democrats to abandon bipartisan efforts that went into this bill and back up a Presidential veto.

The National Defense Authorization Act plays a key role in keeping our Nation safe. The President's attempt to hijack this bill for his political purposes is wrong. I very much hope that he will consider the implications of what he is doing and rethink that threat.

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