National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. MOORE of Utah. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to the MILCON amendment.

This is actually something that we agree on, that most people would agree on. We have apartments that our airmen are staying in at Hill Air Force Base where literally they have to section off corners of the sidewalk because bricks are falling off the building.

This is not up to the standard of what we would like to provide for our men and women who are willing to go and serve in this capacity. This is something that we all agree on.

The reason I stand to oppose the amendment is because it just increases the costs for a MILCON budget that is already laden with a lot of work with very little money. This will require a sort of preference for local hiring, which is a good thing, but it also adds in a lot of bureaucracy with respect to licensing and making sure that every single military construction contractor has all the little prerequisites for each State. This is something that we have rejected in the past, and it ultimately just adds a lot of cost.

It is ironic that both the Trump and Biden administrations disagree with this. Chambers of commerce actually oppose this. A few others that are noteworthy are the defense industry of America, Association of General Contractors, and American Council of Engineering Companies. They all oppose this effort.

Again, this impacts the skilled workforce. Every single construction company that I talk to right now says they can't even hire in their local area. So to require companies to go to each area where there is a base and take away some of their skilled workforce to then go hire a workforce that is in that particular city, it adds an extra burden.

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Mr. MOORE of Utah. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to this amendment.

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Mr. MOORE of Utah. Madam Speaker, I oppose this amendment passionately as I jumped into a debate on this during general debate, because I am so excited to jump into it. I appreciate the opportunity to speak.

This to me is a classic case of we agree, we just are seeing a very different approach in how we want to go about doing this. I have enjoyed my time on the Armed Services Committee immensely these past 9 months, and for one reason alone, we can find areas of collaboration and areas that we can work on together.

Military construction that will go towards projects like providing housing for our men and women serving is a top priority across the board for Democrats and Republicans. I am going to highlight just some of the fundamental, key reasons why this amendment and many others, especially industry folks, with respect to the chamber of commerce, the National Defense Industry of America, the Associated General Contractors of America, and American Council of Engineering Companies, they oppose this effort.

In addition to the industry side, and I never thought that I would say this as I start my debate, President Biden and his administration are also in opposition to this for a few key reasons.

One, this impacts skilled workforce. The local hiring preferences would significantly impact the military construction contractors' workforce by creating scenarios where long-term, highly skilled workers may have to be laid off in order to meet local hire mandates. Then, in order to comply with the requirements, employers would have to bring in unnecessary and unskilled workers to fill those now vacant positions, creating additional costs and safety concerns.

Local preference requirements falsely assumes that there is a local pool of qualified military contractors at the ready, and they are capable of performing the work. In the language you see, the language even uses ``when practical.'' And I always struggle with that, because how can we legislate on ``when practical''?

I believe we should let the individuals that are putting out bids and winning these contracts determine what they can best do for those areas.

Now, I am a huge supporter of local support. And you can go to Hill Air Force Base in Layton, Utah, to find out how we have been able to embrace the local community and enhanced use-lease projects. We are doing it better than anywhere else in the country, and I am firm on it, and I am actually willing to share the best practices, and I am pushing hard to change up some of these budget requirements or these labeling requirements so we can kind of blow through the issues that we have.

The MILCON budget is overloaded right now. We do not have the money to do a fraction of the projects that we have out there. Like I mentioned earlier, bricks are literally falling off the dormitories for our airmen.

Other reasons to oppose it. This is contrary to judicial precedence. Leslie Miller, Inc. versus Arkansas, the Supreme Court ruling held that the bid on Federal contracts cannot be required to first submit state licensing procedures. It undermines competition.

And lastly, but most importantly, it increases cost to contractors and government at a time where we don't have enough money in our MILCON budget to add additional costs.

So again, with the increased costs right now every construction company I talk to are bursting at the seams with potential projects and no labor to do it. If we add on additional requirements to hire specifically locally, even if the contract is sort of similar, if you do the base in Tinker and then you go to Air Force base, and you go to Wright-Patt, there is consistency there. There is opportunity to scale. This is a fundamental business concept where we have to be able to leverage and allow for business and industry to thrive and do this more cost effectively.

Mr. KIM of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, I am glad that we are able to have this debate and talk about what it is that we are trying to prioritize here. When we are talking about the workers here, this bill, this amendment, is not something that would force the Secretary of Defense to hire unqualified workers to be able to work on our bases. That is absolutely not the case here.

It is talking about, in the circumstances where there are qualified workers, wouldn't we want to prioritize the local workers that are part of that community?

We are proud in my district to host a military base. We are proud in New Jersey to have multiple different military installations, and I am sure other States are very proud of the military installations that they host as well.

I hope that the Department of Defense is proud of that partnership with our States. That is exactly what this is. It is a partnership. This can be a win-win. In the same way that we are looking out for our joint military base in our community, we would like the joint military base to think of itself as part of that community.

I believe in the workforce of my State and other States, and I believe that the workforce across America is strong. I believe that we have the skilled labor all over this country to be able to do this.

That is why we have been able to get this bipartisan bill. That is why I have been able to get the support of Congressman Pfluger and to be able to continue to move forward in the way that we need to do this for our small businesses, for our workers, to be able to help build strong national security.

Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. MOORE of Utah. Madam Speaker, I am just going to reiterate the concept of the enhanced use lease that is done better than anywhere else that I have discussed or heard or seen at our base in Utah.

I want to take this opportunity to highlight that that is embracing the local workforce, and it is doing it more cost-effectively on multiple different types of projects.

I am going to continue to push for us to embrace that concept more within all of our military bases because it has proven to be a really good model to do it more cost-effectively and with the right type of labor.

This adds an extra burden that is unnecessary to be able to accomplish what we want it to. I will again reiterate that increased costs to a MILCON budget that can't even do the work that it is trying to do right now is only going to exacerbate the issue. We need to let these companies that bid on these projects do this the appropriate way and without adding a whole bunch of extra burdens.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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