Howard P. "Buck" McKeon National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. Chairman, and Ranking Member Smith, thank you so much for your leadership in leading this bill to the floor.

I rise in support of the Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon National Defense Authorization Act, which provides funding for ongoing operations in Afghanistan and, most critically, for our men and women on the front lines, where they continue to fight and die on our behalf each and every day.

No one in this Chamber should forget that most of the decisions we make impact them first and foremost. It is our constitutional responsibility and should be our highest priority to ensure that they have the training and equipment they need to do their missions and come home safely. We must be committed to ensuring that our force is always ready to respond if a crisis arises.

This bill attempts to limit operational risk, while also balancing present and future readiness requirements with an unrealistic and ultimately damaging topline.

When we legislate to an arbitrary budget number rather than to a national security strategy, we inevitably make ill-advised choices that impact our capacity and capability to respond to global threats, such as the crisis in Ukraine, an emboldened and increasingly aggressive Russia, an increasingly aggressive China, and growing tensions in the Asia Pacific.

If circumstances demand that we call up our forces to respond at this point in time, our military options would be limited.

That is why I strongly oppose BRAC at this time. We just don't have the money to fund it, and we have higher priorities that directly impact the safety of our troops, and every effort and every dollar must be focused on them.

This means funding the Marine Corps Air-Ground Task Forces, or MAGTAFs, in SOUTHCOM and CENTCOM, which are needed to secure embassy and military installations across the globe, a requirement made clear after the terrorist attack at Benghazi; funding flying hour programs, training, and depot maintenance across the services; ensuring robust steaming days critical to fleet training; and restoring CVN-73 funding to retain its viability as a fleet asset.

These fixes, of course, don't alleviate my concerns about readiness shortfalls or risk to our warfighters. We here in Washington need to do all we can to decrease such risks.

We ask a lot of our men and women who serve. We must not ask them to go into a fight without the training and equipment they need to succeed.

When I took my oath of office to serve in Congress, I swore that I would abide by the principles laid out in the Constitution to ensure a robust national defense. While I believe this bill reflects that commitment, we cannot lose sight of the fact that FY16 is ominously looming, and sequestration remains the law of the land.

The short-term and often shortsighted choices we have been forced to make will only exacerbate our readiness levels.

We must continue to focus on restoring the readiness lost as a result of sequestration, but the fact remains that the national security requirements, as outlined in the defense strategy, far exceed the budget.

I remain deeply concerned about the overall readiness of our force, not just the men and women that are fighting in Afghanistan, but those stationed around the globe. We must ensure they are properly trained, equipped, and prepared to meet the challenges on the horizon with overwhelming strength and superiority.

It is time to fix sequestration and start budgeting to meet our defense strategy, not a senseless and arbitrary budget number.

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