OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019--Conference Report

Floor Speech

By: Jack Reed
By: Jack Reed
Date: Aug. 1, 2018
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Defense Foreign Affairs

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. REED. Madam President, I concur entirely with the comments of my colleagues about the dangers and challenges presented by China in many different dimensions.

I am not going to try to defend President Trump's decision to overrule his administration's penalties on ZTE for violating our sanctions, but the President's actions created facts on the ground. One of the principal facts was that part of that arrangement was a billion- dollar payment by the Chinese Government to the United States Treasury, creating for the conferees the issue of trying to find a billion-dollar offset if we reimpose this penalty. That billion-dollar offset could come only from military programs of our jurisdiction, end strength of the military, platforms we might acquire; we found it difficult to work our way through that issue.

More important, I think, is the notion that we did not simply drop this issue. In fact, we imposed, by legislation, a government-wide prohibition on the acquisition of ZTE and Huawei products going forward. It is now the law that we prohibit the Federal Government and government contractors from buying or using or providing grants and loans to entities buying or using telecommunications equipment and services provided by the Chinese companies, ZTE and Huawei. Huawei is not ignored here. It is legislatively a prohibition in the bill for future purchases.

We understand, also, that there are some Chinese companies in the video surveillance equipment business that also are threats. They also have been banned going forward with respect to government acquisition or government contractor acquisitions. So we have recognized this issue, and we have done, I think, what we could do to ensure that our national security is not compromised in the future by ZTE or Huawei equipment.

With that, I suggest that we move forward and pass this legislation, which does a remarkable job of helping the men and women of our Armed Forces.

I will save my further remarks for later.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. REED. Madam President, I also yield back the remainder of my time and urge passage of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT


Source
arrow_upward