Disinterment of Remains of Fernando V. Cota From Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, Texas

Floor Speech

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Mr. FALLON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chair and ranking member for their leadership. They did a wonderful job on this.

Mr. Speaker, this NDAA contains substantial wins for servicemembers and their families. It continues the committee's tradition of improving the quality of life of servicemembers and their families by authorizing a 3.8 percent pay raise, expanding childcare, increasing family separation allowances, expanding and reauthorizing special pays and bonuses, and expanding convalescent leave.

This bill also bans cell phones in DODEA schools, prevents the downsizing or closing of childcare centers without congressional notification, expands access to healthcare, prevents the elimination of uniformed doctors, increases access to specialty care, and authorizes over $335 million to renovate and build new medical centers, hospitals, and clinics.

More importantly, this bill puts the final nail in the coffin of the Biden DOD's woke bureaucracy. The FY 2026 NDAA includes essential reforms that we all know are essential to refocus our military on warfighting and lethality by codifying the President's executive order of ending radical and wasteful government diversity, equity, and inclusion, better known as DEI, programs and preferencing; eliminating statutory provisions relating to DEI in the Department of War; and requiring all command selections to be based--wait for it--on individual merit and demonstrative performance rather than race, ethnicity, or sex. Those categories would be immaterial.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the passage of this bipartisan NDAA so we can deliver on our promises to servicemembers and their families, making our warfighters lethal, better trained, and more prepared for the future fight, while ensuring their quality of life is the standard Americans expect us to provide their brave warriors.

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