National Pulse Memorial

Floor Speech

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Mr. MEEKS. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the distinguished chair of the House Armed Services Committee for all of his hard work in putting together, as he was just closing, what I think is a bill that is one of the best--a lot of hard work that he has done. I thank the ranking member also.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak in favor of passing this measure here before us today.

Every year for the past six decades, Congress has passed a Defense authorization bill. This is an important bipartisan tradition, and I commend, as I said, Chairman Smith for his admirable work carrying out this legacy.

Unfortunately, Congress has been asleep at the wheel when it comes to our State Department. We have not passed a comprehensive State Department authorization in nearly two decades. Congress has been attuned to defense for decades, but we have consistently left diplomacy out to dry.

I am glad that tonight we will be ending this trend by passing out both a Defense authorization bill and a bipartisan State authorization bill contained therein. We need a State Department for the century ahead, not decades past, and my State authorization bill will now put us on that track.

Now, no bill is perfect. Unfortunately, I am disappointed that there are some provisions that were not included in this NDAA. Saudi Arabia's abuse against dissidents and civil society has continued since the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi, yet two bipartisan House provisions that addressed some of these human rights violations were dropped in the final package. Other amendments that would have ended needless civilian casualties resulting from the brutal war in Yemen were also removed by Senate Republicans, though we had a bipartisan agreement in this House.

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Mr. MEEKS. Finally, Madam Speaker, provisions promoting diversity and other management reforms at the State Department were also left out.

These are just a few examples of where the bill falls a little short. Despite the efforts of many of our members of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and my own as chair, we were unable to secure the requisite support from Senate Republicans to advance important provisions in this final bill.

Nevertheless, Madam Speaker, there are other important provisions contained in this NDAA, including State authorization, and I urge my colleagues to vote in the affirmative.

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