National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. KELLY of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, today I rise in strong support of the FY22 NDAA. Our military has and is facing unprecedented challenges, and this body is duty-bound to ensure our military is adequately funded and has the tools to win. We also do this by empowering American companies and the industrial base that provides goods and services to the DOD.

The hardworking Mississippians who work for companies like Airbus, Huntington Ingalls, Winchester, General Dynamics, Stark Aerospace, SpaceX and General Atomics keep our Nation safe and deserve the support of our Congress.

This bill includes a Republican amendment boosting the defense top line by nearly $25 billion and reverses the administration's reckless cuts to our national security, restoring funding for shipbuilding, procurement, missile defense, and modernization.

This bill will also fund the unfunded top priorities of our military that the White House failed to support. Once passed, this bill further bolsters our military's ability to maintain its dominance in every domain, and ensures military leaders have the resources to take care of servicemembers and military families.

Additionally, this year's NDAA will begin the process of holding the White House accountable for the mistakes in Afghanistan. For months, we have asked for more detail on the so-called over-the-horizon strategy to conduct counterterrorism. We received scant details ahead of the withdrawal, and America deserves answers to why the withdrawal was so unorganized in planning and execution run by the Commander in Chief and the State Department.

The lack of planning leading up to the withdrawal and the continued inability to maintain control on the ground by this administration is staggering. The Armed Services Committee, particularly this Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations, will not allow these weaknesses of the administration to continue to place our citizens, allies, partners, and overall national security at risk.

This year's bill calls for the administration to provide a plan to get the rest of the American citizens out.

Finally, I would be remiss without asking about my teammates, which is Tony Starks, Colin Hawkins, and Rodney Hall, professional staffer, Patrick Nevins, and my battle buddy in all of this, Ranking Member Gallego.

I ask my colleagues to support this bill.

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