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

Floor Speech

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Mr. CROW. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge the conferees to strike this truly abhorrent provision from the National Defense Authorization Act.

As several of my colleagues have pointed out, when this bill went out of committee, out of the Armed Services Committee, it passed with a very strong bipartisan 58-1 vote. Then extremists within the Republican Party got ahold of it and made floor amendments and put in poison pills, including this one, in the bill.

A couple of facts: Number one, no taxpayer money is going to provide abortions for servicemembers. The longstanding policy of the Department of Defense is we allow servicemembers to travel for necessary medical procedures and care when they can't get that care on a base or locally. That is longstanding policy. That is what we are talking about here today.

You have also heard a bunch of my colleagues get up today and say this has nothing to do with national defense, that this is superfluous; nothing to do with the national defense of our country. Really?

We can spend money and buy all the best tanks and aircraft carriers and missiles that money can buy, but what actually makes us strong? It is our people. Our people are behind all of that. What undergirds people is the trust within a unit.

I served three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. I can tell you, if you don't trust the person you are going to war with, it is all meaningless.

Are we really going to set up a system where our women servicemembers are second-class citizens within our units and undermine the very trust and integrity of those units? No, we should not and will not. I will stand against that.

Number two, we are suffering historic recruiting shortages in our military. Are we really going to send a message to our young women who want to stand up and serve our country and maybe give their lives, that they can't access the same care as their male counterparts?

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Mr. CROW. Is that the message we want to send? No. You can't say you are for our national security and also support this measure. More than anything else, this is a moral argument.

I don't want to see yellow ribbons tied around trees, I don't want to see people thank people for their service, I don't want to see 10 percent discounts on coffee or meals if they are willing to support a policy that undermines the morality of this country and the ability of our young men and women to get the care they need and for our young servicewomen, in particular, to be treated equally.

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