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Floor Speech
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Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, yesterday evening, the Senate and House Armed Services Committee released its strong, bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act.
As Republicans have said for months, and I repeated yesterday, our servicemembers, commanders, and civilian leaders should not have had to wait until mid-December to gain certainty for a fiscal year that is already more than 2 months over. We have to take our national defense military modernization, and defense industrial base as seriously as our rivals take theirs.
Fortunately, this strong, bipartisan NDAA is a huge step in that direction. The bill tees up a significant and badly needed increase in defense funding--$45 billion above President Biden's insufficient request and roughly $75 billion over last year's level. Once again, Congress agreed on a bipartisan basis that President Biden's defense budget request was anemic and insufficient.
This NDAA authorizes crucial projects like nuclear modernization. It directs critical investments in our defense industrial base so America can both defend ourselves and remain the arsenal of democracy for the world. It delivers for our servicemembers, their families, and our military installations and communities around the country.
Thanks to the leadership from our colleague Senator Blackburn, among others, this NDAA will repeal the President's military vaccine mandate--a policy which this Democratic administration had stubbornly clung to, even as it had clearly undermined readiness and hurt retention.
And just as Republicans insisted, just as our servicemembers deserve, this NDAA is not getting dragged down by unrelated liberal nonsense. Good, smart policies were kept in, and unrelated nonsense, like easier financing for illegal drugs, was kept out.
I am glad this Democratic-led Congress finally realized that defending America is a basic governing duty. It is not some Republican priority that Democrats can demand unrelated goodies to be wheedled into.
Neither party, let alone a sitting President's party, can ever have the mindset that they need to be goaded or bartered into supporting our troops. We made it clear we wouldn't be going down that road; our Democratic colleagues finally accepted it; and Senators Reed and Inhofe did a great job landing the plane.
Now, that same lesson must carry over into our subsequent conversations about government funding. Democrats must be ready to actually fund the national defense, which this bipartisan NDAA authorizes.
Just like on this bill, neither party has any standing to demand unrelated goodies in exchange for doing our job and funding defense. And let's hope this new acceptance of reality also helps shape President Biden's next defense budget request. We have yet to see a proposed budget from this administration that takes growing threats very seriously.
Why do bipartisan majorities in Congress keep having to force this Commander in Chief to adequately resource our Armed Forces?
Today is December 7, the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. No American wants us to ever receive another painful reminder like December 7 or September 11 of the painful price we pay when we let our guard down, soften our defenses, or diminish our worldwide presence.
This strong NDAA is one important step in keeping our guard up. But only one. We need to put it on the President's desk quickly and then stay equally serious on this subject.
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