National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022

Floor Speech

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Ms. JACOBS of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise to offer amendment No. 41 as the designee of Ms. Lee of California.

Mr. Speaker, this amendment offered by my friend and colleague, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, restores the NDAA to the original funding level requested by the White House, the Pentagon, and the chair of the Armed Services Committee.

Specifically, it would remove the Rogers amendment which would increase the pending authorization by $23.9 billion. When Mr. Rogers' amendment was offered during committee markup, I voted against it, and nothing over the last few weeks has led me to change my mind.

Mr. Speaker, just 3 weeks ago we ended our military operations in Afghanistan--America's longest war and one that started when I was in middle school. Yet what some are concluding from that is that what we need is more war, more weapons, and billions of dollars more than even what the Pentagon themselves are asking for.

So many of my colleagues who supported Mr. Rogers' amendment note the emerging threat from China as their reason to support this increase, even though very little of this increase is even relevant to China and most national security experts agree that making needed domestic investments is far more important to our competitiveness with China. Instead, this inflated budget seeks to sugarcoat that for years we have been decreasing investments in diplomacy and the support of our servicemembers in favor of purchasing new, unproven, and un-needed weapons.

We need to have an honest conversation about the Pentagon budget and focus on what is achievable, what the real threats are, and what we actually need for our national security. For the last 20 years, we have been told that we need more, but I think it is time to recognize that there are simply not military solutions to every problem.

I thank Congresswoman Lee for offering this amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'', and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. JACOBS of California. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have remaining.

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Ms. JACOBS of California. Ocasio-Cortez).

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Ms. JACOBS of California. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close.

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Ms. JACOBS of California. Mr. Speaker, I hear my colleagues on the other side talk a lot about the needs from Afghanistan. What is interesting is that in the continuing resolution that this body passed just yesterday there was additional supplemental funding for Afghanistan, and yet my colleagues on the other side of the aisle decided to vote against it.

I also hear them talk about the threats and the briefings that supposedly we were not in. I sit on both the Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees, I assure you, Mr. Speaker, I have been to every single one of those classified briefings on the threats. I am very aware of the threats. But we need to dispel the notion that our ability to respond to the threats depends solely on the size of our military.

I am honored to represent San Diego, a proud military community. They don't need a larger budget. They need one that takes their needs into account, which means better wages and housing free of mold, childcare and job opportunities for their spouses, and they need a government that goes through every diplomatic channel before making the decision to send them to war.

Earlier this month vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General John Hyten asked: Do you think any taxpayer in this country would believe that for $700 billion a year we can't have a great defense?

Hyten said: We should be able to, and it is crazy that we can't.

He is right. It is crazy, and more of us need to be willing to say what everyone knows is true: we don't need to spend money even the Pentagon themselves are not asking for.

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