Conference Report on H.R. William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank him and Mr. Thornberry for their leadership in bringing this legislation to the floor in a strong bipartisan way.

I am proud to support the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act that honors our values, strengthens our security, and advances our leadership in the world.

I, again, salute Chairman Smith. I congratulate Ranking Member Thornberry for his service in the Congress. I know this legislation is named for him. That is pretty exciting for all of us. I don't know if it is for him, but it is exciting for the rest of us.

I thank the members of the committee for their patriotic, persistent leadership on this legislation; it reflects the brilliance and the collaboration we can have. Nearly half the members contributed to parts of this bill.

While we would have liked to have seen the House version of this legislation, we can all take pride that the NDAA, again, will strengthen our national security for years to come.

I am particularly pleased with some of the issues in the bill that are supportive of our troops. This NDAA, Mr. Speaker, incorporates key Democratic priorities, including supporting our troops' financial security, authorizing a long-overdue pay raise and hazard duty pay, extending paid parental leave to civilian employees who had not been included, and providing long-overdue benefits to Vietnam-era veterans exposed to Agent Orange.

This issue has been an issue for a long time in our country and in this Congress, and it needed some expansion. I am glad in this legislation the exposure extends to hypothyroidism, bladder cancer, and Parkinson's. If you are there and you have this, it is connected.

Mr. Speaker, I am personally interested in this because many years ago, before I was in Congress, in our community in California, we had a big--in LA, actually, we had a big hunger strike by Vietnam vets over Agent Orange. This was, like, 35 years ago, long before Congress acted on this. They were on a hunger strike, and I went to be sympathetic and show support. I was chair of the California Democratic Party at the time.

Dick Gregory came. Dick Gregory had been on many hunger strikes for one thing or another, civil rights, this and that. He taught them that, if you are on a hunger strike, you must shower, you must hydrate, hydrate, hydrate; telling them how not to make themselves sick because they were on a hunger strike, but to control that damage.

I was particularly pleased to be there with Dick Gregory because my brother and he served in the Army in Texas together. In those days-- that was in the fifties, a long time ago--my brother was Dick Gregory's friend, at a time when there wasn't so much, shall we say, integration among the troops. So we had that personal connection.

Then, once again, with our Vietnam-era vets, when it came to Agent Orange. So I commend you all personally, patriotically, and in every way for taking care of our vets there.

Then the families, defending their health and well-being and that of their families, improving housing and access to childcare, improving pandemic response, protecting military communities from dangerous PFAS chemicals, and addressing sexual assault in the military.

Jackie Speier has been such a champion on that issue, and I thank her for that.

Combating our adversaries and investing in our allies with important tools to deter China and Russia, fight transnational threats, and further strengthening our partnership with Israel.

Bringing our defense further into the 21st century with reforms to make the Pentagon more efficient and innovative, important bipartisan provisions on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and key investments in military construction and base realignment.

This NDAA is momentous in this respect, as Congress comes together on a bipartisan and bicameral basis to begin the process of changing the names of military bases and infrastructure named after individuals who served in the Confederacy.

Mr. Speaker, it is important to know that this isn't names of things that, oh, my gosh, later we found out that so-and-so did this and that, that was so wrong. This was a decision made to name these bases after people, White supremacists, and those who were part of the Confederacy. The men for whom these bases were named are not heroes. They are named for traitors who took up arms against America and killed American soldiers in defense of slavery.

As I have said before, there is no room for celebrating the violent bigotry of the men of the Confederacy in any place of honor across our country, whether in the hallowed Halls of the United States Capitol or on our military bases.

Changing the hateful names of these bases is supported by an overwhelming majority of the American people, by our Active Duty servicemen and -women, and by top military leaders.

And now the President has threatened to veto this legislation. I hope not. I hope not. This bipartisan policy bill has been signed into law for 59 consecutive years. Let us urge the President to a show respect for the work of the bipartisan, bicameral Congress, and for the sacrifice of our military.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a strong bipartisan vote for this legislation, which upholds our values, honors our troops, and keeps the America people safe. And I hope that it will be swiftly signed into law.

I just want to make the further point that the strength of our Nation, of course, depends on our strength that we are talking about here, but it also depends on the health and well-being of the American people. So as we have our budget debate and the rest, let us recognize that the health and well-being of the American people, whether it is the education of our children, the security of our economy, and the rest, and so many other aspects of our budgeting here, that this is one element of the strength of our country.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote. I congratulate Mr. Thornberry for his namesake bill, and I acknowledge the great leadership of our chair, Adam Smith. I want to also acknowledge Anthony Brown, who did such a tremendous piece of work on the base renamings.

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