Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2026

Floor Speech

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Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

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Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, I think there may be a misunderstanding about bioindustrial manufacturing, what it is and what it is not. Bioindustrial manufacturing is not cultivating meat. However, bioindustrial manufacturing is critical to energetics, such as hypersonic fuels, critical chemicals for munitions and missiles, and materials that literally increase the bang for the buck.

In the 1980s, the United States developed what we called CL-20, one of the most powerful nonnuclear explosive chemicals ever created, but we did not produce it at scale. China, unfortunately, found our research and then scaled production. Now, the Chinese and Russian arsenals have this very powerful ingredient.

We cannot allow China to be the world innovation leader in any field, including bioindustrial manufacturing. We must continue tried and true practices to adopt new technologies to fortify the American defense industrial base.

American lethality is degraded without bioindustrial manufacturing. Meanwhile, China and Russia benefit from American research. That has to stop.

I am going to make a point here. BioMADE is a product. It is not a manufacturer and does not manufacture lab-grown meat. BioMADE has never funded research projects for lab-grown meat, has no current research projects on lab-grown meat, and has no plans to fund projects on lab- grown meat in the future.

I think we have a misunderstanding. We need this technology for our energetics, which we use in our explosion devices very effectively.

Mr. Chair, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum), who is the ranking member.

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Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, may I inquire as to the time remaining.
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Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, our interests are energetics that go into explosion devices. A big part of that is the BioMADE industry.

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Mr. CALVERT. I am not interested in the substitutes.

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

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Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, this amendment strikes all funding for the Overseas Humanitarian, Disaster, and Civic Aid account. The funding is used by DOD to assist during humanitarian disasters. The funding is also used when specialized DOD experience is needed, such as detection and clearance of landmines, unexploded ordnance, and other explosive remnants of war. Even to this day, we are cleaning up World War II remnants.

President Trump's budget request includes just over $100 million for this account. I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment.

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Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

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Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, I greatly admire the gentlewoman from Georgia's passion for ensuring support for our overseas allies are a wise use of taxpayers' dollars, but support for Taiwan must be part of that equation.

Just yesterday, the Trump administration released a statement of administration policy for the Defense appropriations bill. I was very supportive of the bill we produced. One of the very few areas the administration expressed any slight disagreement with our bill was wanting more money for Taiwan. The administration has proposed including $1 billion while this bill provides $500 million.

Mr. Chair, had OMB delivered budget materials to us in time for consideration, we would have certainly taken a look at providing what they requested, but that wasn't the case.

Supporting Taiwan in the face of unrelenting Chinese aggression is absolutely in the vital interests of the United States. I point out that Taiwan makes 90 percent of the world's chips and close to 100 percent of the highly needed chips for artificial intelligence and high technical devices.

The funding will go a long way to making sure that Taiwan has the resources necessary to help prevent a Chinese invasion. That is the position of the Trump administration, and that is the position of this bill.

Mr. Chair, I urge a ``no'' vote on the amendment, and I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum).

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

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Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, the amendment strikes $15 million for HIV prevention education activities undertaken in connection with the United States military training exercises and the humanitarian assistance activities conducted primarily in African nations.

This funding supports the Defense Health Program, and those funds are credited with scaling back the AIDS epidemic in Africa. This program has long enjoyed support across party lines.

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Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

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Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, the gentlewoman's amendment would strike $500 million in funding for the vital Israeli missile defense capability.

Over the past 2 years, Israel repeatedly has been attacked by Iran and its terrorist proxy groups, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis. Each time, these groups have vowed to destroy the State of Israel.

The United States has affirmed our resolve to stand with Israel by helping defend against the recent missile raids launched by Iran against Israel's civilian population.

The success of Israel's robust missile defense capability is, in part, because these funds were provided in this bill and prior bills. Furthermore, this funding benefits our own missile defense industrial base, as it provides for coproduction activities and shared technology development. It is certainly to our mutual advantage.

With that, I urge a ``no'' vote on the amendment.

Mr. Chair, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum), the ranking member.

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Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Fine).

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

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Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

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Mr. CALVERT. Mr. Chair, Jordan remains an indispensable ally in an extremely dangerous region. Our partnership with the Kingdom of Jordan is critical both to the regional and U.S. national security.

We must continue to ensure Jordan can counter extremist terrorist threats and have the resources necessary to continue their role as the linchpin in the region.

Mr. Chair, I urge a ``no'' vote on the amendment, and I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum), the ranking member.

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Mr. CALVERT. I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. CALVERT. Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to the gentlewoman's amendment.

Sadly, we saw for years how the Biden administration failed to provide Ukraine the resources necessary to fight back in an effective way against Russian aggression. Just the other day, President Trump took decisive action to provide weapons to Ukraine to defend against these unprovoked attacks.

The President is right to support efforts to ensure innocent lives are no longer lost. He is right to undertake efforts to stop the bloodshed. As he continues to work toward a peaceful solution, we should not remove the ability to provide what he thinks will help the Ukrainian people to prevent further losses and use as leverage to negotiate a peace agreement hopefully very soon.

Madam Chair, I urge a ``no'' vote on the amendment.

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Mr. CALVERT. Madam Chair, I claim the time in opposition but not the intent of the amendment.

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Mr. CALVERT. Madam Chair, I state to the gentlewoman that certainly I look forward to working with her as we move forward with this legislation to make sure that we have the right type of language.

What I am going to do is work with the gentlewoman as we move forward on this legislation to make sure that we don't have any unintended consequences in the language. We will do that as we move this legislation forward. I appreciate the gentlewoman withdrawing the amendment.

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Mr. CALVERT. Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time. Amendment No. 248 Offered by Mr. Ogles

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Mr. CALVERT. Madam Chair, I look forward to working with the gentlewoman. We need a place for those aircraft to land in Greenland.

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Mr. CALVERT. Madam Chair, I certainly rise in support of the amendment. The amendment prohibits the expenditure of funds to create, procure, or display any map that depicts Taiwan as part of the territory of the People's Republic of China.

Let's be clear: Taiwan is not a part of the People's Republic of China. We should not appease the desires of the Communist Chinese leadership by pretending that it is. Our maps should accurately reflect this reality.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to support the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. CALVERT. Madam Chair, I move that the Committee do now rise.

The motion was agreed to.

Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Mr. Fine) having assumed the chair, Ms. Malliotakis, Acting Chair of the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, reported that that Committee, having had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4016) making appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, and for other purposes, had come to no resolution thereon.

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