National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022
Floor Speech
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Mrs. BICE of Oklahoma. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4350, this year's National Defense Authorization Act. As a member of the Armed Services Committee, I was honored to have a seat at the table in crafting this legislation, and I am pleased to have been successful in having a good number of my priorities for Oklahoma's Fifth District included in this bill.
As a new member of the House Armed Services Committee, I was deeply concerned when President Biden proposed earlier this year to essentially cut our defense budget below the rate of inflation at a time when we are facing serious threats from around the world.
I am thankful for the leadership of Ranking Member Rogers in securing a bipartisan deal in this bill to provide the additional resources needed to meet our Nation's defense needs. This bill makes important investments to protect our Nation from dangerous adversaries like Russia and China.
I also fought to include several items in the bill we are considering today, including a measure I co-led with Congresswoman Gonzalez-Colon to require DOD to survey access to mental health and suicide prevention services within the military healthcare system, as well as a modified version of my bill to protect servicemembers and their families with disabilities from being charged out-of-pocket expenses for needed ADA upgrades to their on-base housing unit.
Lastly, I successfully advanced amendments to require the DOD to analyze the security threats resulting from the Taliban's release of thousands of prisoners from Bagram Air Base and an amendment to increase resources for the Army National Guard to assist CBP with security operations on the southern border in light of the growing threats emanating from Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Bottom line, this bill strengthens our Nation's defenses, supports our brave servicemembers, and sustains important defense programs across the Nation and in my home State of Oklahoma.
Madam Speaker, certainly there may be provisions of this bill that not everyone agrees with, but I urge my colleagues to support the bill.
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