National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2010

Floor Speech

NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2010

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Mr. SMITH of Washington. I rise in support of the National Defense Authorization Act and to discuss briefly the portions of the bill contained under the subcommittee that I chair on Terrorism and Unconventional Threats and Capabilities. And I want to begin by thanking Ranking Member Miller from the great State of Florida for his support for this bill. We work in true bipartisan fashion on the subcommittee, following the lead of our able chairman, who does the same with the full committee, and I think, in large part as a result of that, we produce a very good product.

I also want to thank the chairman for his overall leadership on the committee in putting together this mark. It places the priorities exactly where they belong, first and foremost, on our troops and their families, giving them the support they need to continue to fight and defend our country.

In program after program, you can see the priority that that is put in this bill. I really appreciate the chairman's work on that and, particularly, the 3.4 percent pay raise across the board for our military.

The bill also prioritizes our fight in Afghanistan, the central front now in the war against al Qaeda. It is absolutely clear that the battle over there has a profound impact on the national security of this country. This bill gives our troops over there the resources and equipment they need to fight the fight, to defeat al Qaeda, and to protect us against the violent extremists in that region.

In particular, it also recognizes the battle in Pakistan by funding counterinsurgency efforts there that are so critical not just to success in Pakistan but to success in Afghanistan as well.

On the subcommittee portion of our mark on the Terrorism Subcommittee, we are focused on three main issues: First of all, support for counterterrorism efforts, the fight against al Qaeda, and broader counterinsurgency and counterterrorism efforts across the globe; second, the support for innovative new technologies to give our troops the updated equipment that they need to best fight those fights; and lastly, to protect our homeland against unconventional threats.

All of these areas are focused on irregular warfare, unconventional threats, and the emerging threats that we face. And I want to take just a moment to thank Secretary Gates for his leadership in funding the money necessary, the programs necessary, the troops necessary to fight these fights. He made some bold steps in this bill to move us past a cold war mentality to focus on the threats that are right there before us from al Qaeda and other violent extremist groups. I think that makes an enormous difference.

In particular, in our mark we do everything we can to support our troops with the special operations command. They are the tip of the spear in fighting terrorism, in fighting insurgencies throughout the globe. We are growing their force--in the process of growing their force. It is necessary to fund that growth and fully support their outstanding efforts in protecting us across the globe.

We are very pleased with the operations and always make a high priority funding their efforts. We fully fund all of their unfunded requirements in this mark.

So, with that, Mr. Chairman, I simply again want to compliment Chairman Skelton, Ranking Member McKeon, also Ranking Member McHugh for all of his work on this committee and on this bill and Ranking Member Miller for his support as well. I think we have put together an outstanding bill that will best protect the national security interests of this country.

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