National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024
Floor Speech
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Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Chair, I think the comments made by my colleague were perfectly appropriate. We have to deal with China and a whole series of issues, but to say that we should not collaborate with them on basic scientific research, that as was bluntly stated, could literally help us cure cancer is not something that is in our best interest.
We also have to realize that China is a major factor in the world. We would like to get to a more peaceful relationship with them. Cutting off all contact doesn't make sense. Even at the height of the Cold War when we were aggressively trying to stand up to the Soviet Union, a bipartisan group of legislators kept dialogue up between the two countries.
Madam Chair, I agree with my colleague that this amendment goes too far and I urge opposition.
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Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Chair, the ignorance contained in these comments is really breathtaking. Transgender people who have normal, regular healthcare are no more likely to commit suicide than anybody else.
Basically, the statistics he is showing say once somebody identifies as having a problem, they are more likely to have a problem.
I mean, that would be like saying, we have identified that servicemembers who complain of PTSD symptoms are more likely to commit suicide.
The point is to get proper care for transgender people, and you won't have these issues. It is the ignorance that has prevented them from getting that proper care.
By the way, the overwhelming majority of transgender people don't need any of this any more than any of us do, but when they need it, they need it, just like when anybody else does.
To Ms. Jacobs' point, we need to recruit people. Being bigoted against transgender people takes a huge population out of the recruitment.
This is a very simple, easy thing to do and deal with. Again, I really want to emphasize not every transgender person needs this care.
If you have a problem, yes, you are more likely to have a problem, but that is true of anybody regardless of your gender. We need transgender people to serve in the military. This amendment will make that more difficult and should be defeated.
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Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Chair, I claim the time in opposition.
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Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Chair, I yield myself 2 minutes.
Let's be clear on what this amendment is doing. It is taking healthcare services away from servicemembers and their families. That is what this is doing. It is denying them access to healthcare.
The only way this amendment makes sense is if you believe that transgender people do not exist. That is the only way this makes sense. Unfortunately for the makers of this amendment, transgender people absolutely exist. This denial of their existence hurts certainly transgender people, but if you are a servicemember and you have somebody in your family who needs this care, you are going to get out of the service now because the military is saying that your child doesn't actually exist, doesn't actually need the same healthcare that every other child needs.
Again, it is repeated over and over again, oh, this has nothing to do with defending the country. Making sure that we have the best people serving in the military is the number one thing to do with defending this country. We are now taking a huge chunk of the population, anyone who has a transgender family member or even anyone who thinks they might at some point, and saying: You are out, don't serve. No matter how capable, no matter how qualified you are, we are going to make it impossible for you to serve primarily because of the colossal ignorance that a lot of people have about what transgender means.
You can listen to the sarcasm in their voices: They don't know if they are a man or a woman. That is not what transgender is, okay? It is both a very legitimate psychological and physical issue that some people have to deal with, just like in the special needs services. I have met with servicemembers who had a child who had any manner of different problems. They were able to stay in the military because their child could get the care they needed. We are taking all those people and kicking them to the curb because we are ignorant of what transgender is and the importance of dealing with it.
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Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Chair, families care about their children, and it stuns me that the gentleman on the other side has indicated that he wants to take health decisions out of the hands of parents who are serving in the United States military, committed to laying their life down for America, and eliminate it to the point that the parents who love the military must leave the military and diminish our fighting force.
Let me be clear. As relates to trans children and medical care, every major medical and mental health association in the United States, representing more than 1.3 million U.S. doctors, support age- appropriate gender-affirming care for transgender people.
In addition, in the special needs of the soldiers and others in the United States military, there is no indication that money would be taken away from special needs children as relates to the particular needs of trans children. What it does say is that parents who love their children would be discriminated against depending on what their health need is.
Therefore, I rise today in opposition to this ill-thought-out and ill-fated, I hope, amendment that clearly divides us as Americans, as members of the United States military, in that it goes against science and medicine because this affirming medical care has been accepted.
I am struck, as I end, by someone suggesting that someone who has their hand on a nuclear weapon or they are in some strategic assignment is diminished because they have a life that is different from someone else, that they are no more of a soldier than someone else. They are a soldier. They are part of the military, and families should be allowed to make decisions for their children.
Madam Chair, these health decisions are life-changing and needed, and medical doctors and science affirm it. I oppose this amendment.
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Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Chair, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Jacobs).
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Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.
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Mr. SMITH of Washington. President Biden's policy on Ukraine has been clear and it has got two pieces: First, do what we can to support Ukraine, to make sure that a sovereign democratic Ukraine survives; second, don't go to war with Russia.
So it is the red herring of all red herrings to say that U.S. troops are going to be put into this conflict. The conflict has been going on for over 18 months. We have very carefully not dragged U.S. troops, or even NATO troops, into this conflict.
What we are doing is we are supporting a sovereign democratic Ukraine against a tyrannical dictator who is trying to take over that country through violence. If Putin succeeds in Ukraine, he won't stop at Ukraine.
I also am interested in the sponsor of this amendment's remark that the U.S. shouldn't care about what goes on in the rest of the world which, I guess, means we shouldn't care about what is going on in China.
The purpose of all of this is deterrence. We want to deter Russia from going further than Ukraine. We want to deter China from thinking they can use military force to claim sovereign territory.
Deterrence is what will stop U.S. servicemembers from winding up dying in a war. We need to support Ukraine.
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Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, just building off of that is really important. I think the President and a whole lot of people have over and over explained what we are doing in Ukraine.
We should not fight every war everywhere. I agree with that. That is why I strongly supported getting us out of Afghanistan long before we actually did. There was not a strategic interest there and, also, U.S. lives were being lost in Afghanistan. That was what was at stake.
In Ukraine, along with 53 other countries in the world, we are supporting an effort to protect a sovereign democracy against a dictatorship. Those are core U.S. interests.
The Ukrainians are doing the fighting. All they are asking for is our support. If we can deter that type of aggression, it does advance U.S. interests. It does protect U.S. servicemembers from having to fight.
We don't want to fight at home. We don't want to fight anywhere in the world, but you have to stand up to dictators who are willing to push that if you are going to get to that place. That is what we are doing in Ukraine in a very effective manner.
Let's not abandon Ukraine at this point. They deserve our support.
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Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chair, I actually think the gentleman is correct. China and Russia are very closely aligned, and if you are concerned about Chinese aggression in the world, you must also be concerned about Russian aggression.
I also note that when he quoted me on what the policy was, he conveniently left out the first part. He mentioned that we don't want to get into a war with Russia, but he left out the first part, which is ``preserve a sovereign, democratic Ukraine.'' President Biden and his team have done an excellent job of this.
Nobody thought Ukraine could survive this long, but thanks to their courage, their willingness to fight, and 53 nations that have coalesced to help them, they have been able to preserve a sovereign, democratic Ukraine.
I want to place a strong emphasis on that. I know Americans are rightly worried. Is it just us standing up for these principles in the world? In Ukraine, it is not. It is 53 nations that are contributing across the board, 53 nations that believe preserving economic and political freedom requires us to not let an autocrat like Vladimir Putin run over Ukraine. Please oppose this amendment.
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