Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. GALLEGO. Mr. Chair, I rise to express my support for H.R. 8070, the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025.

I thank Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Smith for their leadership in bringing this bipartisan legislation to the floor.

This bill strengthens our national security by ensuring the Department of Defense has the right resources and authorities to defend the Nation, not only today but also in the future. In this era of great power competition, the bill both addresses the challenges of our potential competitors and adversaries and further strengthens and builds the crucial partnerships and alliances to deter them.

I am also proud of the work of my subcommittee. The Intelligence and Special Operations Subcommittee's piece of this bill ensures that our Special Operations Forces and Defense Intelligence Enterprise capabilities and enterprises have the authorities, force structure, and people they need to accomplish their mission.

The bill also improves security cooperation efforts, including in the Baltic region, and extends an existing authority to engage partner militaries on defense-related environmental and operational energy issues in areas like the Indo-Pacific.

I am also proud to have secured important wins for Arizona, which plays such a crucial role in our Nation's defense. We are requiring DOD to report on the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure, like local water systems, and authorizing additional funding for infrastructure and communications upgrades at Air Force combat training ranges.

This bill is certainly not perfect, but it was voted out of committee on an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote. It is my hope that this bill can remain bipartisan and devoid of extreme policy riders that put our national security at risk and harm our servicemembers.

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