National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017
Floor Speech
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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the distinguished chairman of the House Armed Services Committee for his leadership in bringing what I think is a very good NDAA bill to the floor. This is the 55th consecutive NDAA.
This is not an easy bill to manage. We have a critical set of funding challenges as the administration's budget submission for FY 2017 broke the deal negotiated in 2015 to achieve the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015.
Because of this failure, we in Congress must exercise our constitutional duty to provide for the men and women in uniform and we must provide much-needed oversight of the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy.
This bill includes a number of key provisions that were authored by the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces that I lead, including:
Consolidating and strengthening the Air Force's organization regarding our nuclear command and control and missile warning systems;
It enhances the authority for the Department of Defense and, also, the Department of Energy to mitigate threats from unmanned aircraft at its most sensitive nuclear facilities;
It prohibits the DOE funding for Russia and for Secretary Kerry's unilateral disarmament initiative concerning retired U.S. nuclear warheads;
It tackles the significant and growing foreign counter space threat that our space systems are suffering by providing the necessary resources to build up our space security and defense capabilities and by ensuring the Department is organized properly and has the authorities it needs to maintain our space advantage long into the future;
It makes clear that replacement of the RD-180 in a reasoned, prudent timeline is the primary goal of the Department of Defense to maintain assured access to space while protecting the taxpayers and ending our reliance on Russian rocket engines;
It requires the Army to do a better job for its soldiers than delaying the procurement of a modern radar until 2028 at the earliest; and
Most significantly to me, in this bill we have recommended to the chairman a significant increase of over $400 million for the Missile Defense Agency, focusing on R&D, and full funding of the request of our allies in Israel, $600.7 million, for codevelopment and coproduction of Iron Dome, David's Sling, and Arrow 3.
I want to thank the chairman for his leadership, and I want to thank my good friend and colleague from Tennessee, Mr. Jim Cooper, for his support, counsel, and thoughtfulness. I couldn't ask for a better ranking member.
I urge support of the bill.
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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the gentleman from Arkansas' amendment.
The Army included Patriot MSE procurement as number 12 on its fiscal year 2017 UFR list to ``mitigate critical shortfall in Army war reserve requirements.''
The ballistic missile threat from Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, and North Korea is growing. We owe it to our men and women in uniform to give them the tools they need to defend themselves when we send them into harm's way.
I know that on the other side of the aisle they look at every dollar that goes to the defense nuclear nonproliferation budget as sacrosanct, but I know that the House Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies mark also has skepticism about whether this technology is ready for prime time.
As the chairman of the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, I urge the support of this amendment offered by the gentleman from Arkansas.
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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.
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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chair, I strongly oppose the amendment, and so does the United States Air Force. The Air Force opposes the offset in this amendment, which would take $17.9 million from the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, also called GBSD, program.
I and the Air Force oppose the offset because the $17.9 million is already being used in a pending reprogramming action. Taking the money via this amendment would delay this program.
This is what the Air Force says about taking this money:
Removing these funds . . . would be a double-take to the program, hindering the GBSD contractors' ability to fully fund their Technology Maturation and Risk Reduction phase contracts. This would prevent the winning contractors from appropriately ramping up their efforts . . . and result in a 5-month delay.
Furthermore, GAO does not support this reduction. The gentleman is basing his argument on GAO's initial draft budget fact sheet released over a month ago, which said that the $17 million offset may be available.
However, in its final GAO budget fact sheet released today, GAO says:
The Air Force's Fiscal Year 2017 request for GBSD could be reduced by a total of $17.93 million--as long as the funds are not reprogrammed.
In their final fact sheet, GAO also said that the GBSD account for FY 2017 should only be reduced to offset the excess $17.93 million if the funds remain with the program and are not reprogrammed as currently planned.
So both the GAO and the Air Force oppose the offset in this amendment.
Furthermore, two successive Secretaries of Defense say that nuclear deterrence is DOD's most important mission.
Here is Secretary Hagel:
Our nuclear deterrent plays a critical role in assuring U.S. national security, and it is DOD's highest priority mission. No other capability we have is more important.
And here is Secretary Carter:
The nuclear mission is the bedrock of our security. It is what stands in the background and looms over every action this country takes on the world stage. It is the foundation for everything we do.
In short, GBSD is the future of one leg of the triad and must remain on schedule. According to the Air Force and GAO, this amendment delays that schedule. Let's be clear. This is an antinuclear disarmament amendment disguised as something else.
I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the amendment.
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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chair, this is about disarmament.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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