Announcement By the Acting Chair

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Chairman, that was a most interesting argument presented by our colleague.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Rogers), the chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Smith), the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee.
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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Chair, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Chair, I yield myself 2 minutes.

Mr. Chair, I am curious here about the history of the United States Government putting its finger on the scale. Let's think for a moment about the way in which the railroad industry was created in the United States. We are talking not only a finger, a thumb, but the extraordinary weight of the Federal Government creating it.

Let's talk about nuclear energy. Let's talk about aircraft. Let's talk about the airline industry.

When we talk about anything in modern America today, in one way or another, the Federal Government led and caused in part, together with the private sector, for the industry to develop.

What we are doing here in the NDAA is to set out a mechanism using the military to bring into the economy new technologies that are sustainable and that reduce greenhouse gases.

If you want to buy steel from several American steel companies, this amendment would make it impossible for the military to buy that steel because they are using sustainable methods of creating the steel.

Throughout the entire system, we find the military moving toward sustainability, reducing costs, and, I might add here, maintaining the standard that is necessary for that particular steel structure. It could be sustainable, using hydrogen rather than coal to create the steel. It could be wood, cross-laminated wood products, which previously were not used by the military because they weren't considered. What we have done is to say consider using these sustainable materials.

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Chair, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, it is always interesting to listen to my colleague, and I often find that he is incorrect, Mr. Chairman. However, let's consider for a moment what we really have here.

We have an entirely new system being developed within the United States and really around the world, and that is new materials that are being developed every day.

This amendment would make it difficult, if not impossible, for the military to engage in the purchase of these new materials. It is, in fact, the military that has throughout the history of the United States brought into the American economy new systems and new materials. We can go through a long list of those, but I won't spend all my time to do that.

What I will simply say is that what we are doing with the NDAA is to make sure that we have resiliency and that we are reducing the impact of carbon in our society and in the climate of this world. We are also requiring that those new materials meet the highest standards used in all of the United States.

I am afraid that I am out of time. We will continue this in the back room.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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