Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2017

Floor Speech

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Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the FY17 Defense Appropriations bill. I would start, by the way, by thanking and commending the chairman of the subcommittee, Mr. Frelinghuysen, not only for putting together a great bill that recognizes the dangers that exist in this world, whether it is China and their expanding aggression around that part of the world, whether it is ISIS in the Middle East, or whether it is Russia with their aggressive nature. Wherever you look, Mr. Chairman, the world has gotten a lot more dangerous in the last number of years.

So I want to thank the chairman for putting together a bill which will increase readiness, increase the number of the Armed Forces of the United States.

I will close with this: All of those things are hugely important, and it is about time that we address them in an aggressive way like this bill does.

To the chairman of the Subcommittee on Defense, Mr. Frelinghuysen, we all owe a great bit of gratitude for the way that he is treating and continues to treat the men and women in uniform, the men and women of the Armed Forces. This bill is a reflection of his passion for them.

Again, this is a great bill. We can all be very proud of what this bill does. It is about time, and I thank the chairman for his leadership.

I would ask for your favorable consideration of this bill.

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