National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020

Floor Speech

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Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion to recommit.

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Mr. SMITH of Washington. We have worked in a bipartisan fashion, and the worst part about it is they all know that because we spent 6 months--my staff and your staff--working together to produce this bill.

The only petty partisanship on this bill is coming purely from the Republican Party that will put their partisan desires against voting for it.

Why?

Because Democrats are in charge. As we have seen time and again on this floor, no matter how much we work with them and how much we cooperate with them, at the end of the day, partisanship trumps all. They will not vote for anything Democrats do, including, by the way, in this bill we have the largest pay raise for our troops in 10 years, and Republicans are going to vote against that pay raise.

We have in this bill money for widows. The Republicans have cosponsored this bill for 10 years, telling us how much they care about making sure that the widows of our troops get money, and now that we do it, after 10 years we put it in the bill, they are going to vote against it just so they can say that Democrats don't support national security.

There is $733 billion in this bill, the largest Defense bill in the history of the country, and it is not enough. The response is that it can always be more. No matter what it is, they are going to say do more. The Pentagon is apparently the only place in the country where Republicans feel that you can throw money at the problem relentlessly.

This body has raised pay for our troops every single year, and, again, I will simply close by saying that we have the largest pay raise in 10 years in this bill for our troops.

We have worked in a bipartisan manner. It is easy to say: well, I am going to vote ``no'' and therefore it is partisan.

There is no good reason for it. This should be a bipartisan bill. It supports our troops, and it supports our national security.

Madam Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentlewoman from New Jersey (Ms. Sherrill), who is a Navy veteran who has fought for our country as well and is a member of the Armed Services Committee.

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