National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment, although I am not opposed to the amendment.

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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman for offering the amendment.

Ubiquitous commercial data collection and bulk data sales represent a privacy concern for all Americans. Companies and governments alike have access to once unimaginable amounts of user data through commercial channels. This development and the Fourth Amendment questions that come with it deserve full consideration.

I look forward to working with the gentleman on this amendment to ensure that these issues are addressed in a manner that does not unduly burden the Department of Defense relative to the rest of the Federal Government while ensuring its operational needs are met.

I think Congress will spend a substantial amount of time on the privacy concerns addressed by this amendment in the coming months, and I welcome that discussion.

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

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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chair, pursuant to House Resolution 583, I offer amendments en bloc.

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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chair, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Nunn), my friend and colleague.

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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Mike Garcia), my friend.

Mr. MIKE GARCIA of California. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this strong NDAA. It prioritizes the true mission of our U.S. military, and that is to deter and to win wars. That is it. It is pretty simple.

More specifically, it prioritizes America's greatest national security asset, our brave men and women in uniform who serve on a daily basis. I thank Chairman Rogers for his support of my amendment within this en bloc that will secure the highest pay raise in history for nearly 1 million of our junior enlisted troops, paid for by the appropriations bill.

This takes the starting salary for an E-1 in the military from about $22,000 a year to $31,200 a year. It gets them above the poverty line and off of food stamps. These brave men and women are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our freedom, and it is unacceptable that they were making less than fast-food workers.

Mr. Chair, I couldn't be more proud of this historic victory, and I couldn't be more eager to continue fighting for those who fight so hard to give us our security blanket.

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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Van Orden), an outstanding freshman.

Mr. VAN ORDEN. Mr. Chairman, today I rise in opposition of amendment No. 3 in the en bloc.

I have tremendous respect for Chairmen Green and Rogers, and I also view the Chinese Communist Party as a threat to world peace.

I believe the unintended consequences of this amendment will have a greater negative financial impact on our junior enlisted servicemen who shop at our base exchanges than on the Chinese Communist Party.

Our junior enlisted currently struggle financially, and implementation of this amendment will unintentionally raise the cost of everyday goods and further exacerbate this strain.

Mr. Chair, for this reason alone, I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment.

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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Jackson), my friend.

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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Molinaro), my friend.
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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chair, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chair, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I thank our bipartisan HASC staff for their tremendous work. As I talked about yesterday, our committee staff has worked for monthslong hours in a very bipartisan fashion to get us where we are today.

I also thank everyone from the Office of the Legislative Counsel, the Congressional Budget Office, the Parliamentarian's Office, the Clerk, the floor staff, the Rules Committee, and the leadership on both sides of the aisle.

I especially thank my friend, Ranking Member Smith, for his hard work and assistance. As a longtime former chairman of this committee, he gets the ebbs and flows of this process and has been a very helpful partner in helping me lead this committee.

Mr. Chairman, this is a good bill.

I will address this to my Conference: There is absolutely no reason why any Republican should vote against the bill. It will enhance the congressional oversight of the DOD. It will improve the quality of life for our servicemembers and their families. It will help build the ready, capable, and lethal fighting force we need to deter the Chinese Communist Party and other adversaries.

Mr. Chair, I urge all Members to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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