National Defense Authorization Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, first, I want to thank Senator Fischer for all of her work on the Senate Armed Services Committee and in so many other areas. I am here to talk about the same subject, the National Defense Authorization Act.
It may be difficult to understand the difference between appropriating and authorizing. We have two different sorts of committees here. One focuses on the resources funding their use, but they can't be used unless they are authorized. So every year for 58 years, we have come into the committee, we have heard differing opinions on priorities, but at the end of the day, the amazing thing about the Senate Armed Services Committee when it comes to the National Defense Authorization Act is that we always reach a bipartisan agreement. It passed out of the Senate Armed Services Committee with I believe unanimous support, and then it got passed out of the Senate.
Normally, this happens in the June timeframe, maybe the July timeframe. Now here we are in November. Not only have we not passed the National Defense Authorization Act, but we are at risk of not passing anything. Now what we are hearing about is a so-called skinny bill that would just be the basic authorities while we are leaving everything else on the table.
I am going to talk a little bit about the Personnel Subcommittee, which I chair, but what do authorities mean? It means research on new weapons systems. It means research for men and women in a dangerous situation to make sure the best possible technology and training is available to make it as safe as it can be in an unsafe environment. There are hundreds of authorizations in the National Defense Authorization Act that are at risk of sliding another year for the first time in 58 years.
Now what I want to talk about is what is at stake if we can't reach an agreement with Speaker Pelosi specifically in the Personnel Subcommittee.
I actually requested the Personnel Subcommittee because I wanted to focus on the business of the Department of Defense, and I wanted to focus on military families and on the soldiers' health and safety.
If we do not pass provisions that passed out of my subcommittee and that are in the National Defense Authorization Act that passed out of the Senate, here is what is at stake:
There is a pay raise for every soldier, sailor, and marine--a 3.1- percent pay raise that they could lose this year as a result of not gaining agreement.
We have a lot of provisions in there for military housing. I am from North Carolina, and we have two very large installations in North Carolina--Fort Bragg, the home of the Global Response Force, and Camp Lejeune, home to a bigger population of marines than any military installation in the world.
They are in housing today that needs to be outfitted. They are in housing that, quite honestly, is unsafe. This National Defense Authorization Act makes progress to make sure that the families that are housed on bases are in safe, clean settings, and quite honestly, in some cases, they are not today, which is why we have bipartisan support for the provisions we put into our subcommittee mark.
Another thing that we are working on--it is very difficult for one who doesn't come from a military background to understand how challenging it is for a spouse to get a job for the brief period of time that they may be in one military installation or another. This mark has provisions in it to make sure that military spouses get employment opportunities as quickly as possible and to cut through a lot of the red tape that they are dealing with today. That provision is at risk.
We have also taken major steps and tried to prevent or reduce military sexual assault. Provisions in this bill, I am convinced, because they were voted out on a bipartisan basis, are at risk because we can't seem to get agreement with Speaker Pelosi's House.
Another very important area is in places like North Carolina. In North Carolina, Camp Lejeune alone experienced over $3.5 billion in damages as the result of the most recent hurricane, and Fort Bragg is still trying to recover from a hurricane that happened about 2 and a half years ago. There are authorities in there to make sure that we can rebuild these facilities. Military housing, as well as offices and other training facilities at Camp Lejeune, could slip another year if we allow what I think right now is the impasse between the House and the Senate to move forward.
These are all very, very important provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act. These are all provisions that got bipartisan support from this body. If you all have been watching Congress, you know that we can have our disagreements. There are certain things that we just simply aren't going to see eye to eye on, but we see eye to eye on the National Defense Authorization Act. That is why I do not understand how the House would not come to the table and pass something that we have successfully passed for every year of my life.
I am 59 years old. This could be the first time in 58 years that we run the risk of not showing the respect that I think the men and women in the military, in uniform, deserve, to give them the authority to be trained properly, to not run the risk of working with old authorities that could diminish training and readiness and capabilities. This is about these folks that have sworn to defend the Constitution and our freedom, and we can't take the time to bridge the gap and eliminate the other reasons that divide us and at least come together on something for 58 years we have seen our way clear to passing and making progress, for men and women in uniform, for soldiers, sailors, and marines and for their families.
So I am for the Speaker of the House and the Members of the House to come to terms and pass what we have done successfully for decades. We owe it to the men and women in uniform, and we owe it to every American to understand what is at stake if we all of a sudden slide for a year while our adversaries continue to gain ground.
I hope that my colleagues will continue to come together and pass this bipartisan legislation. It is within reach and absolutely an expectation, I think, of every Member of Congress to show our men and women in uniform respect by doing our job.
Thank you, Mr. President.
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