National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024
Floor Speech
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Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Chair, later today, I will offer the motion to recommit on this bill.
I stand with my colleagues who have stood shoulder to shoulder in support of our brave servicemembers in an effort to put together this bill for the last nearly 1 year. I stand with the spirit of those who are currently serving in uniform who are sick and tired of this legislative body politicizing their lives, their livelihoods, and their bodily autonomy.
I rise today in honor of my grandfather and my father, who served full, distinguished careers in the military, and my mom and my grandmother, who served as military spouses, each for over 30 years.
I rise today as someone who was born and grew up on a military base and moved across this Nation and to other countries. I rise as someone who raised my own hand and my own child when the time came. I rise for my cousins who serve today.
I don't need my colleagues to tell me what it is like to be a mom in uniform because I lived that experience, or a child in the military. I lived that, too.
Here I am today, standing up on behalf of all servicewomen and military families who are willing to risk their lives for our freedoms, yet we are not willing to protect theirs.
What I have seen on the floor over the past 2 days has really saddened me: targeting LGBTQ families like my own, targeting libraries, targeting the reproductive freedoms of servicewomen and military families stationed in States that do not respect their own bodily autonomy.
Chair, we even saw a colleague refer to our Black servicemembers as ``colored people.''
To my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, let me make a few things clear. We agree there are threats around the world like China that we should be spending our time and efforts on. We agree the historic recruitment challenges we face are a risk to our national security. We agree the brave men and women who serve in uniform should not be used as political pawns.
So why did this Republican-led body decide to take a historically bipartisan piece of legislation from the House Armed Services Committee hostage by adding scores of extreme GOP culture war priorities to it, including, least of all, a clear-as-day backdoor policy to a national abortion ban?
Chair, I want the American people to know that Democrats support our men and women in uniform. We proudly voted forward by 58-1 a bipartisan piece of legislation to increase their pay, to improve their housing, and to expand their access to childcare.
However, the GOP is putting that bipartisan progress in jeopardy, and the toughest part is that they know it. I have a great deal of respect for the handful of my colleagues who recognize the extreme turn that this legislation has taken, and I thank them.
So, I look at them again, and I look to them again. We must do what is right by our servicemembers. Put the political gamesmanship aside and return this extreme bill back to committee where it can return it to its bipartisan nature.
I will work tirelessly across the aisle to ensure that we give the President, our Nation, and, in fact, our globe a bill that truly provides for the collective defense of our American values.
It really saddens me to say that this bill does not do that. This bill will hurt our recruitment and retention.
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Ms. HOULAHAN. It makes it extremely difficult for a proud veteran like myself and so many others to look at future leaders of America and say that, yes, this military is a home for you.
I took the uniform nearly 30 years ago, and it is a travesty that servicewomen today will have less freedoms than I did.
Chair, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this MTR and send this extreme bill back to committee where we can truly deliver for those in uniform.
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Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.
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