Clarifying Jurisdiction with Respect to Certain Bureau of Reclamation Pumped Storage Development

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk about the National Defense Authorization Act. The act that is called the NDAA covers a wide range of topics, but, overall, it helps us chart a course to defend our country during these very dangerous times.

Russia, China, and Iran are working together to undermine U.S. interests across the globe. A world led by those nations is, in fact, a very dangerous world. And it is a world where the economic well-being of ordinary Americans suffer.

I have visited key U.S. allies and partners in recent years, and I am convinced that when we are strong--when the United States is strong--as a nation, we attract like-minded partners who will work with us to push back on our adversaries and defend freedom, not only here for our country but across the globe. And the NDAA is about bolstering our defenses and strengthening those very partnerships.

This bill, for example, establishes a Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative. Now, that is modeled after the Indo-Pacific and Ukraine's security assistance initiatives, and it is designed to enable Taiwan to maintain sufficient self-defense capabilities, vitally important in the Pacific and vitally important that we not work just with Taiwan but with all our allies in the Pacific: Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and others.

And also, this pact requires the Department of Defense to provide Israel with intelligence and advice in support of their war effort in the Middle East against Hamas and other terrorist organizations, including the largest sponsor of state terrorism in the world, Iran.

In addition, the NDAA supports a handful of missions that are both critical to our security around the globe and of particular interest to my State.

First, for example, UAS and counter-UAS. It is a huge issue right now, not only in terms of the battlefield, what we are seeing in Ukraine, in the Middle East, and other places, but even here in our own country, civilian uses of drones and counter-drones is certainly very much at the forefront of the public's attention. And we have real problems with UAS threats across all of the areas that we operate, here at home and overseas.

Now, we still have a patchwork approach that has grown out of an ad hoc response to specific threats to domestic military installations. The Department of Defense very much needs a coherent strategy and clear guidance when it comes to drones and countering drones.

This bill takes a number of important steps toward addressing the issue, including: directing the Secretary of Defense to develop a strategy for countering unmanned aerial systems and the threats they pose to Department of Defense facilities, personnel, and assets. And that means not only here at home but across the globe where we have personnel and where we have military installations.

So having that strategy for drones and counter-drones is very, very important right now. And it is very complex, as we are seeing.

This legislation also requires standing up a counter-UAS--unmanned aerial system--drone task force to review and update all of DOD guidances to provide clarity and expedited decision-making processes and information processes so that the public knows what we are doing and has confidence in what we are doing.

In North Dakota, we have a UAS ecosystem that is ready to support this initiative, both in the military aspects and in the civilian aspects. And we have had that focus on UAS technology going back all the way to 2005.

And again, I think we are one of the only air bases in the country, at the Grand Forks Air Force Base, where we operate military and civilian, manned and unmanned aircraft, all at the same base, as well as our connection to the lower orbit satellites through the Space Defense Agency.

So we have established what we call their Project ULTRA. Project ULTRA is specifically designed to move unmanned aerial systems and to counter unmanned aerial systems from the drawing board to the warfighter. As I say, we have been at that for almost 20 years.

As DOD contemplates this counter-UAS strategy, we are ready to bring industry partners, and I mean some of the leading industry partners like Northrup Grumman, like General Atomics, like Raytheon, and many others as well. They are already operating. They are in the Grand Sky Technology Park on the Grand Forks Air Force Base. And we are ready to bring those partnerships--those companies that have developed these technologies--together with the Department of Defense under the directive in this legislation to defend, like I say, not only our military installations but to do more in the civilian airspace so that the public can have confidence that when they see a drone flying in our national airspace, that it has been accounted for and properly dealt with.

Second, the second huge issue in the NDAA is nuclear modernization. Our nuclear deterrent is the foundation of global stability and is prerequisite for the success of our conventional forces.

If we have a nuclear deterrent that no adversary ever questions, then they will never go beyond conventional forces. We have the finest military in the world. Our conventional forces are more than a match for anyone in the world. And so that could create the temptation for somebody to actually use nuclear forces. But if they know our deterrent is so strong, then they will never actually challenge us. So it is the bedrock or the foundation on which our conventional forces reside. We are facing an increasingly dangerous nuclear world where we must deter multiple nuclear powers at the same time.

Now, several years ago, I led efforts to ensure that the Department of Defense kept our inventory of silos for our intercontinental ballistic missiles and preserve a full deployment of these missiles to support deterrence.

Today, we need those missiles to support deterrence against China, which is building up its forces incredibly, as well as Russia and North Korea.

This NDAA continues to carry language preserving the number of ICBMs that we deploy. It also creates a new Assistant Secretary of Defense to oversee nuclear deterrence policies and programs across the Department of Defense.

And most importantly--most importantly--it authorizes the next steps in modernizing not only the ICBM force but all three legs of the nuclear triad--bombers, the missiles, and submarines. It provides more than $5.6 billion in authorizations for modernizing these programs; for example, Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, which is the only dual nuclear base that we have, both the bombers and the missiles. But it also updates the aircraft, the Sentinel, which is the new missile program, the LRSO, long-range stand-off, which is the new air-launched cruise missile, which is part of the bomber fleet; the B-52s, the new B-2 bombers, as well as our other long-range stand-off missile programs.

All of those things, as well as our submarines, form the nuclear deterrent that is the bedrock of our military forces. With the evolution of technology, the environment, and our own ambitions--the military environment I am talking about--and the near-peer challenges that we face with Russia and particularly with China, we have no choice but to make sure that we are updating and modernizing our nuclear forces so that no one ever challenges the United States or our ability to defend ourselves and our allies.

Space Development Agency--I mentioned that just a minute ago--another area of emphasis that is very important in this legislation. We know that space is an increasingly important part of defending our Nation and our interests around the globe. When we look at Russia, when we look at China and what they are doing in space, we must not only keep up, we must continue to exceed what they are doing. It is vitally important to making sure that our nuclear forces have the best technology and a technological advantage in warfare over our adversaries.

This legislation authorizes more than $4 billion for the Space Development Agency, including how the Low Earth Orbit Satellite Program is operated. This program is significant and will fundamentally change--the low Earth orbit satellites, which we are putting out in space now, and we will have many of them, I mean, hundreds of them. This program is significant and will fundamentally change the way our forces operate around the globe.

Every soldier, every weapon system, and every mission will benefit from getting information from these low Earth orbit satellites. And we are taking steps in this bill and in the appropriations processes to do just that.

And so when you look at SpaceX, sending those rockets in space, many of those have low Earth orbit satellites that we are already putting out in space.

Those low Earth orbit satellites will be controlled from one Army base and from one Air Force base. The Army base is the Redstone Army base in Alabama. And the Air Force base is the Grand Forks Air Force Base in my State.

Some other provisions that I want to mention are noteworthy as well. First, greenhouse gas emissions. This NDAA extends a prohibition that we passed last year on any rules that would force contractors to report on greenhouse gas emissions.

I fought hard against these types of regulations, which would add unnecessary redtape and delays, drive up costs, and provide no benefit to the warfighter.

The purpose of our weapons systems must be to make sure that our forces have a superior advantage to any other forces in the world in lethality. And that is exactly how they need to be designed. And that is what this provision is designed to ensure.

Support for our servicemembers, this bill includes a number of provisions that I have heard about in regard to strongly supporting our servicemembers and their families; for example, pay increases. It authorizes a 14.5-percent pay increase for junior enlisted servicemembers, E-4 and below, and a 4.5-percent basic pay increase for all other servicemembers.

Second, access to mental health. The bill improves access to services for mental health, making it easier for telehealth providers to offer services and expand accreditation opportunities for behavioral health providers, which is a big need.

Specialty care travel allowances. The bill includes a provision I supported to require the Secretary to reassess the travel and transportation allowances provided to servicemembers and dependents seeking specialty care--healthcare, within a hundred miles of their duty station.

Military spouse professional licensing permanently grants authority to the Department of Defense to make transferring professional licenses between States easier for military spouses.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion: It is important that our military members can put mission first, and this bill eliminates authorizations for a range of disruptive DEI programs while establishing a 1-year freeze on hiring for DEI work at the Department of Defense.

Like I said at the beginning of my remarks, the NDAA helps us chart a course to defend our country during these dangerous times. With the passage of the NDAA, we will have the authorization for these important programs, and as a member of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, we are ready--I and others are ready--to get to work to fund these important programs for our Nation's defense. We have the finest military in the world, and we must do all that we can to support our men and women in uniform.

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