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

Floor Speech

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Ms. STEFANIK. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Thornberry for yielding.

I want to start by thanking my subcommittee chair, Mr. Langevin, who is a wonderful colleague to work with. I also thank both of our staffs for the hard work.

As the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Emerging Threats and Capabilities, I would like to highlight the key themes that will ensure the U.S. retains our competitive edge in the future.

First, this bill places special emphasis on basic research and the important contributions that our science and technology ecosystem, including our universities, the DOD labs, and DARPA, provide to our collective national defense, including our pandemic preparedness and response.

This bill also restores a critical social science research program that has provided foundational insights into violent extremism, great power competition, and foreign information operations campaigns.

In sum, this bill provides an additional $600 million for science and technology investments in critical emerging fields, including AI, autonomous systems, and biotechnology.

Two years ago, I introduced legislation in the NDAA that created the National Security Commission on AI, with the purpose of accelerating and advancing the development of AI across the Federal Government.

Mr. Speaker, I applaud the Commission for their work on this important issue, and I am honored that this bill included 18 of those recommendations. The adoption of these recommendations demonstrates how important AI is and how urgently it must be integrated into not only our weapons systems, but our healthcare, our predictive maintenance efforts, our humanitarian assistance missions, and our cybersecurity.

Our ability to apply AI and other emerging technologies faster than our adversaries will allow us to maintain our competitive edge over Russia and China and prepare our citizens for an AI-enabled future.

Secondly, this bill extends and expands the opportunities for our Special Operations Forces to partner with foreign forces, build critical relationships, and more effectively counter the malign influences of Russia and China.

Furthermore, this bill also increases our investment in the programs that provide care and support for the families of our special operators that have been so critical to our counterterrorism operations over the last 19 years.

Most importantly, as a proud representative of the soldiers and families of Fort Drum and 10th Mountain Division, this bill will invest in the technology and training necessary to ensure the safety and security of the men and women sent into harm's way.

This bill supports our force protection and military intelligence capabilities to ensure our servicemembers have the tools they need to mitigate hostile actions while they continue their important missions abroad.

As a representative of the most deployed division in the United States Army, currently serving in Afghanistan, my number one priority is force protection and the safety of the brave men and women called into action to protect our national interests.

That said, I am very concerned with any amendments that would slash the defense budget, impact our force protection, or degrade our investment in new technologies. A $73 billion cut to the defense budget would cause irreparable harm to our military and our readiness and would decimate the very programs that keep our servicemembers safe.

Mr. Speaker, I want to close by thanking Ranking Member Thornberry for his leadership and guidance not only this year, but his many years of truly exemplary leadership.

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