National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017

Floor Speech

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Mr. TURNER. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017.

As the chairman has indicated, the President has issued a veto threat on this bill claiming criticism that the bill uses overseas contingency operations funds for base requirements. This is a hypocritical attack by the President because the President, in his own bill, included $5 billion in overseas contingency operations funding to be used for base requirements as part of the President's budget for 2017.

The reality is that $5 billion is not enough to address the readiness crisis that is facing our military, and it does not ensure that our troops are ready to deploy and are fully prepared. The military, in fact, submitted $22 billion in unfunded requirements for fiscal year 2017 alone.

I want to thank Chairman Thornberry for his leadership as he begins the process of rebuilding our military and restoring readiness back into the future. As the chairman said, this bill came out of our committee, 60-2. It is the same bill that is going to come to this House floor.

I certainly hope we are not in the situation, as we were last year, where we had Democrats on the committee who actually voted for the bill in committee and then voted against the bill on the House floor. This is a bill that deserves passage. It deserves the support for our men and women in uniform.

In my subcommittee, the bill authorizes almost $6 billion in additional funds to address critical unfunded requirements, a benefit provided by the military services.

I want to also thank Chairman Thornberry, in this bill, for reversing the President's proposed cuts to our end strength, our numbers of those serving in the Army and the Marine Corps. He has incorporated the POSTURE Act, which was first introduced by Representative Chris Gibson.

The bill also includes funds for the European Reassurance Initiative, which is incredibly important as we move to respond against Russian aggression.

Additionally, this bill calls for continued action to eradicate sexual assault in the military, and I appreciate the chairman's support for those provisions.

The bill provides greater transparency in the military criminal justice system, acknowledges the need for intensive treatment for male victims of sexual assault, and continues to address the critical issue of retaliation.

Before I conclude, I want to thank our subcommittee's ranking member, Ms. Loretta Sanchez, for her support in completing the markup of this bill as well as that of other Members, and I want to thank Loretta Sanchez for her long service on the Armed Services Committee.

I ask everyone to support this bill.

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