William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BANKS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding, and I want to congratulate him on a tremendous record of service to our Nation and to our men and women in uniform. It seems fitting that this piece of legislation would be named after him.

It should be no secret to anyone in this Congress about the threat that the Chinese Communist Party poses to Unites States national security interests and to the freedoms and values that Americans enjoy.

President Trump demonstrated tremendous leadership by preparing the Nation for a new era of great power competition with the 2017 National Security Strategy. This year's NDAA upholds the ideals of the National Security Strategy more than ever and asserts U.S. leadership in the face of CCP aggression domestically and around the world.

It is well documented that the Chinese Government's mismanagement of the novel coronavirus spread the virus worldwide; that the Chinese Government is engaging in human rights abuses towards ethnic populations in China and politically suppressing voices in Hong Kong; that the Chinese Government has a strategy to consolidate manufacturing supply chains that hit all aspects of the U.S. economy; and that the Chinese Government is seeking to dominate next-generation communication hardware, steal United States technology and research, and censor the real truth about the Chinese Community Party's intentions and actions that run counter to American values of freedom and democracy. This defense bill takes several positive steps on China that both Republicans and Democrats support.

The base bill includes funding for an initiative for the Indo-Pacific to deter China, similar to the European Deterrence Initiative to deter Russia.

The bill also increases funding in emergent technologies, such as artificial intelligence, to maintain a technical edge against China, and starts taking financial actions to reduce China's role at the World Bank.

However, there is a lot more that needs to be done, and there were a number of amendments that were offered that were ultimately not ruled in order for consideration that would have helped American competitiveness and safeguarded U.S. interests against the threat of China. I won't name all these amendments because there are many of them.

It is imperative that we pass this bill and counter the China threat.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source