Motion to Instruct Conferees on H.R. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. JACKSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Rogers for his outstanding leadership in crafting the strongest defense bill I have seen during my time in Congress.

Year after year, the chairman assures us that we are going to have a strong NDAA that we can be proud of back home, and this year is no different.

In July, this body passed the NDAA on a bipartisan basis to provide our warfighters with the resources and the authorities they need to provide for the defense of our Nation.

As a former Navy rear admiral, I know the vital role this legislation plays in our national security. Not only does this NDAA ensure that we have the weapons systems and equipment that our servicemembers need, it makes needed course corrections to restore the military's focus on fighting and winning wars.

This bill ensures that our military is laser focused on confronting the most pressing national security threats that our Nation faces.

However, now, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have chosen to come to the floor and are seeking to inject politics back into our military by overturning the Jackson-Roy amendment that was adopted on a bipartisan basis to end the Department of Defense's illegal and immoral abortion policy.

After the Supreme Court's historic decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Biden administration made their intention clear that they would work to sidestep the law however possible.

The Biden administration has pulled every lever within the Federal Government and encouraged Federal agencies to create rules and adopt policies that not only expand abortion access but also leave American taxpayers on the hook to subsidize abortion services.

Not even the Department of Defense was spared from the Biden administration's efforts. In October of last year, the Secretary of Defense released a memo titled: ``Ensuring Access to Reproductive Health Care.''

This memo outlined the steps to be taken by the Department to use taxpayer dollars to provide servicemembers and their dependents access to abortions and for providers to travel to different States to obtain the licensing required to perform such procedures.

In February of this year, the DOD enacted the policies outlined in the memo and became a completely unjustified and inappropriate participant in the war on life.

According to its illegal policy, the DOD can now reimburse travel expenses for servicemembers and their dependents who travel to obtain an abortion in another State and can also reimburse any associated fees for healthcare professionals seeking to be licensed in other States for the purpose of performing abortions, all, once again, on the taxpayers' dime.

Last year, immediately after the DOD started this unconstitutional process, Congressman Roy and I got to work to address this issue and ensure that we developed a bill to right this wrong.

I am so proud to stand on the House floor today and say that our provision mandating the DOD cease this insanity was successfully included in the House-passed version of the bill.

At the same time, Senator Tuberville has bravely and steadfastly held the line in the Senate by placing a hold on all DOD senior leader nominations until the DOD complies with Federal law and ceases its abortion policies.

The DOD has complained that these holds harm national security, but the DOD has the ability to stop this immediately. All they have to do is rescind this illegal policy.

It has become clear to me that the Biden administration has purposely prioritized an illegal and highly political abortion policy over confirming general and flag officers in our military.

This Biden-endorsed policy has nothing to do with strengthening our national security. Instead, this is just the latest example of the Biden administration pushing its radical and extreme pro-abortion agenda, ironically in the very agency responsible for defending American lives.

Regardless of your political or moral stance on abortion, this policy is in direct violation of Federal law, specifically section 1093 of title 10, U.S. Code, which restricts funds made available to the DOD from being used to perform abortions or for DOD facilities to be used for abortions.

No doubt my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will insist that taxpayer dollars are not directly funding these abortions, thereby rendering their policy legally sound. This is absolutely misleading, and they are lying to the American people.

While funds may not be going directly to the performance of the procedure, it has always been true that a restriction on funding for abortion is a restriction on funding for any cost used to promote or facilitate the abortion.

Funding travel and/or other costs for an abortion is, in fact, funding the abortion. There is no other reason for these travel expenses except to get an abortion. Therefore, providing financial support for the travel expenses relating to an abortion is a clear violation of laws that are already on the books.

The NDAA is meant to provide aid, support, and direction to the men and women charged with defending the security of this Nation. When necessary, it is also a mechanism through which we can bring the Department into compliance as needed.

Inclusion of the House's prohibition on the DOD's abortion policy in this year's NDAA is vital to bringing the Department into statutory compliance in accordance with our oversight function and refocusing the Department on its core mission of fighting and winning wars.

It stops here and it stops now. On this issue, I will never relent.

The days of the radical left ignoring the law and driving their social agenda in the military are done. I will absolutely not waver in my defense of the unborn or in my support of the rule of law.

I will do everything I can to ensure our military servicemembers can focus on their jobs and their families instead of being used to score political points for the Biden administration.

I appreciate the chairman's strong leadership in crafting this year's bill, and I look forward to the conference process where we will do everything in our power to maintain this vital provision.

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