Announcement By the Acting Chair

Floor Speech

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Mr. HORSFORD. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong opposition to this amendment.

Mr. Chair, the previous speaker, the maker of this amendment, talked about being exhausting. This issue that he has brought before this body and the committee is exhausting.

Just this week, the sponsor of this amendment called diversity, equity, and inclusion in the military a ``failed experiment.'' He has called it cancerous.

Just this week, a Senator from Alabama stated that it was his opinion that white nationalists are not necessarily racist and refused to denounce white nationalists serving in the military; all of this with the backdrop of the same Senator holding up hundreds of military nominations, which is actively hurting our national security, something that this NDAA bill would address.

To what end? The U.S. Marine Corps does not have a confirmed commandant, as we speak.

Yet, just an hour ago, on this very floor, one of the Members on the other side of this body said that his amendment had nothing to do, whether colored people or Black people can serve.

Mr. Chairman, these comments show exactly why we need diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Every day our military grows more diverse, more and more reflecting the diversity of our Nation.

This amendment does nothing to address the recruitment shortfalls that our services are facing and, instead, it will only make it more difficult to recruit Americans of diverse backgrounds representing the true makeup of our Nation.

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Mr. HORSFORD. What are you so afraid of? Why do you keep bringing these divisive issues to the body of this floor. You are out of order. You are exhausting.

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