National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017

Floor Speech

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Mr. MOULTON. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 2 minutes.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to speak first about an amendment to be considered in a later en bloc regarding Special Immigrant Visas. I want to call attention to the urgent need to continue the Special Immigrant Visa program for Afghans who worked for U.S. forces.

This bipartisan amendment, backed by several veterans on the committee, would remove the unfortunate narrowing of eligibility requirements included in the mark, which would prevent hundreds of Afghans whose lives are at risk because of their work for our country from even being considered for resettlement in the United States.

The narrowing of eligibility intentionally excludes hundreds of Afghans who worked for the State Department, USAID, and U.S. security contractors in a number of capacities, many of whom face well- documented death threats due to their work with our government, regardless of whether that was with frontline troops or on an American base.

By narrowing eligibility, the program would erode the expectations of hundreds of Afghan staff whose lives remain in danger because of their work for the U.S. mission and also make it more difficult to hire and retain qualified Afghan staff in the future who are essential to achieving our diplomatic and assistance goals.

For that risk and sacrifice, the very least we can do is offer them a chance to stay live, to keep living, rather than abandoning them to the same enemies they united with us to destroy.

One of the things I was most proud of as a Marine infantry officer was that we never let our enemies make us compromise our values. One of those values is a solemn commitment to our allies and to our brothers in arms.

I urge your support on the floor in following through on our commitment to our Afghan partners.

I also want to comment on the fact that the chairman of the committee and I worked to resolve some differences that we had on understanding the concerns of our diplomatic mission in Afghanistan. I appreciate very much his work with me on that to support our troops and mission overseas.

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I would like to discuss an amendment to come up in a future en bloc package.

I joined a vast array of foreign policy experts and retired generals--and even Israel's own nuclear commission--in supporting the nuclear deal with Iran because, although it was an imperfect deal, nobody could articulate a better pathway to a better deal to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. The nuclear deal, however, is only that--a nuclear deal. As when President Reagan was negotiating nuclear deals with the Soviets, we make these agreements with our enemies, not with our friends, and we must not forget that Iran remains opposed to us in a vast array of other ways. As with the Soviets, enforcement of the deal requires continued vigilance.

My amendment would require the President to notify Congress whenever Iran conducts a ballistic missile launch and inform Congress as to the actions the President will take in response, including diplomatic efforts to pursue additional sanctions and the passage of a United Nations Security Council resolution.

While we have been successful in deterring Iran from building a nuclear weapon with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, we must continue to apply pressure to deter further actions that destabilize this fragile region and threaten our allies.

I urge a ``yes'' vote.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. Chairman, I would like to speak about a bipartisan amendment that passed the full Committee on Armed Services, and also had to go through the Foreign Affairs Committee to be approved. It calls on the administration to report to Congress on a comprehensive political and military strategy for our fight against ISIS in the Middle East.

Mr. Chairman, we are sending troops back into Iraq today, just 7 or 8 years after we pulled the last troops out. Many of the battles they are fighting have familiar names--Fallujah, Ramadi, and Haditha--battles that we fought and won a long time ago. But we did not have a strategy to ensure the peace.

Mr. Clausewitz taught us about 200 years ago that war is an extension of politics.

We have to have a political endgame for our fight in Iraq, or we will find ourselves continually going back there again and again. When Iraqi politics fail, a new terrorist group sweeps in; and American troops are left to pick up the mess.

If you think about what happened when ISIS swept in from Syria and entered western, then northern Iraq, the Iraqi army wasn't just defeated by ISIS. The Iraqi Army put their weapons down and went home because they had lost faith in the Iraqi Government.

We must have a long-term, comprehensive political and military strategy. We owe it to the troops to ensure that their efforts will not be in vain.

I am proud of the bipartisan support for this amendment, both on the Armed Services Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee, and I am especially proud that the chairman worked with me to get it adopted. I am glad that it is included in the bill.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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