Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Ms. AYOTTE. Mr. President, I want to thank the senior Senator from Oklahoma, Mr. Inhofe, for his leadership, along with Senator Levin, working hand in hand to get the Defense authorization done this year. This is so important. I know all of us would like to have a process where we can have an open amendment process here, but I know that Senator Levin and Senator Inhofe worked very hard. We had this ready to go a long time ago. I thank you for your work and your commitment on this, and I thank you for the way you and Senator Levin have run this committee in a respectful bipartisan manner.

As we look at the importance of the Defense authorization, making sure that we get this done before we go home, we have to understand with the threats we are facing around the world right now, now would not be the time for the first time in over 50-plus years not to pass the Defense authorization, given what it means to support for our men and women in uniform, their readiness, their equipment, the training, the support for their families, military construction, investment in technology that they need to keep us safe.

So I want to thank Senator Inhofe for his work on this. I also want to take the opportunity to thank Senator Levin, who is retiring this year, for being an incredible chairman of this committee. I have to say this has been one of the best experiences I have had since I have gotten to the Senate. I have been here for 4 years, and Senator Levin has conducted this committee and treated everyone with respect. He has gotten us all to work together, where almost every year we passed out the Defense authorization almost unanimously--how often does that happen--and most times unanimously in a divided Congress.

I wish Senator Levin the best, because he has been so knowledgeable and so committed to ensuring that our Nation is safe and committed to our men and women in uniform.

On a personal note, he has been so respectful to me and someone who I think has run the committee so very well and has served our country with such dignity and such dedication. I wish he and his wife Barbara the best in the future.

He is someone whom this body will miss. Certainly as the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, he has treated everyone on both sides of the aisle with incredible respect and given us opportunities to raise issues that are important to us. I think he is a model of how we should conduct ourselves. We can disagree with each other but still find ways in common ground where we can work together to get things done for the American people.

I come to the floor to discuss the Defense authorization and the provisions in it that are so important to not only my home State of New Hampshire but to the country and also to address some of the provisions I want us to keep an eye on as we go forward. With skill and courage, our men and women in uniform are doing their job. It is essential we do our job as well. In a time of war, we cannot neglect our constitutional duty to provide for the common defense.

As a member of the Armed Services Committee I have been privy to many briefings, as the Presiding Officer has, as a member of the committee about the threats facing our country and the needs of our men and women in uniform, the concerns we have of ensuring our troops are ready and that we are prepared to address potential threats to the country.

In this bill, my home State of New Hampshire, we are a State that is very dedicated to serving, just as the Presiding Officer's State of Virginia is very dedicated to serving. There are many provisions in this bill that I have introduced and supported that I am proud of that will make a difference to our national security and to our men and women in uniform.

I would like to talk about some of those provisions. In terms of supporting our troops and our families, it is very important that we pass this bill every year because it authorizes expiring benefits for our troops that if we don't reauthorize, they would expire, including dozens of specific special incentive pays for our troops and their families, particularly those who are serving us overseas and facing great danger as we stand here today.

The Defense bill also authorizes more than one dozen provisions to enhance protections for victims of sexual assault and extends to the Secretary of the VA the authority to provide rehabilitation and vocational benefits to servicemembers with severe illnesses and injuries.

It also strengthens the Department of Defense's suicide prevention efforts. Unfortunately, suicide is happening to too many of those who have served our Nation and is an issue that we are so concerned about on a bipartisan basis.

The bill also authorizes $6.3 billion for needed military construction and family housing projects. Included among that authorization are military construction projects at Pease Air National Guard Base in New Hampshire to prepare for the arrival of the KC-46A, not to mention a very important energy conservation project at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. The shipyard has continued to invest in energy conservation and to save taxpayer dollars while doing so, and I am pleased it is included in this bill.

The Defense bill also maintains critical close air support capability in the Air Force, which our troops need, in that it ensures that the Air Force cannot prematurely retire the A-10 aircraft in fiscal year 2015.

Having traveled to Afghanistan and hearing directly from the men on the ground, I know how important it is they have the very best air support to keep them safe.

The bill also authorizes continued funding for the Virginia Class 10-boat multiyear procurement program, including two in fiscal year 2015, which is very important because keeping the 10 boat multi-year production and procurement program on track--and I know the President shares this concern--will help achieve savings in excess of 15 percent, compared to purchasing only one per year. It makes cost sense, and we need to continue to invest in our attack submarine program.

With the help of the skilled workers at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, these submarines will protect vital shipping lanes and U.S. national security interests around the world for decades to come. With the administration's discussion of a shift to the Asia-Pacific and the importance of that area of the world to our economy and our interests, our attack submarine fleet is so critical in meeting our needs around the world.

These measures, which are included in this bill, will help ensure that Portsmouth and Pease will remain valuable national security assets. I am so proud of the members of our National Guard, everyone who serves at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and the incredible workers there who do the maintenance of our attack submarine fleet.

The bill also includes provisions of ``never contracting with the enemy'' legislation. This is legislation which I have previously introduced which has allowed our military to ensure that dollars don't flow to our enemies. So when we are contracting in places such as Afghanistan, we have given them tools to cut off contracts sooner to make sure the contracts aren't going to the wrong people.

This legislation will extend those authorities across the Federal Government, to USAID, and to the State Department to ensure that our taxpayer dollars don't go to people who are acting against our interests. So I appreciate USAID and the State Department working with me on this legislation, and I am very pleased it is included in these provisions.

These are a few of the positive examples of the importance of this Defense authorization bill. There are many other important provisions in this bill. That is why it is important that we get this done today or tomorrow.

There are two areas of issues that I want to address briefly which I am a little concerned about on this bill. As a Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee--and I am also married to a veteran--I plan to vote for this bill because of the positive components. But one of the areas with which I am concerned is that we are again looking at compensation and we are looking at housing allowances of our men and women in uniform. It reminds me a little bit--it is not an exact analogy--of when we had the budget agreement over 1 year ago. There was an adjustment made to the cost-of-living increases. It was a cut, really, in the military retirement of some of those who have served our country.

I was someone who came to the floor to reverse this reduction to the cost-of-living increases, which for some of our men and women in uniform, who had served so admirably, would have cost them up to $80,000 a year in their retirement. We are talking about enlisted people who worked so hard, and it would make such a big difference for them.

One of the reasons I came in that regard to fight against what was included in the budget agreement was because there seemed to be a disconnect.

That budget agreement made changes to civilian retirement but only prospectively to those who were just joining the retirement program. When it came to making the cuts to the military retirement and to their cost of living, it was affecting current recipients. So there seemed to be a disconnect. How could we ask those who have given the most--have sacrificed so much to defend us--to make a sacrifice when we were treating other civilian employees differently. I am pleased Congress reversed that.

What came out of that is that we need to have a greater understanding of the unique sacrifices our men and women in uniform make. The sacrifices they make are different than that of other workers--the traveling they do, the danger they face. Often their spouses can't have second careers because they are constantly moving.

Since 2000, collectively as a Congress, we worked hard to correct the pay-and-benefit structure for those who wear the uniform to close what was a 13.5-percent gap between the private sector and what our men and women in uniform were getting. We eliminated out-of-pocket housing expenses--that used to be 20 percent--and expanded health care for retired military personnel over the age of 65.

But as I look at the provisions of this bill, I don't want us to erode the work we have done to recognize our men and women in uniform and the positions and the danger they face. In this bill, generally, the dollar amounts associated with the provisions about which I am concerned are much smaller than those involved with the COLA debate earlier this year. Again, we are back looking toward our men and women in uniform in several areas.

These problematic provisions relate to the compensation and health benefits for our servicemembers and their families. More specifically, they relate to the basic allowance for housing or BAH, TRICARE pharmacy copays, and basic pay for our servicemembers.

BAH is currently designed to cover 100 percent of servicemembers' monthly housing costs. The BAH provision in this NDAA will allow the Secretary of Defense to reduce BAH payments so they only cover 99 percent of a servicemember's monthly housing costs.

Obviously, that is a small reduction. But it is the significance of the reduction I am concerned about. We can't keep going down this road, where we are trying to choose between military readiness and making sure our men and women in uniform have the compensation they need in terms of compensation and support for their families. That is why I am concerned about this provision.

In terms of pharmacy copays, while the Pentagon's budget request is important to understand, they requested a much greater increase in future years in copays than this body would accept--than the Armed Services committees would accept. The negotiated NDAA would still permit a $3 pharmacy copay increase for non-Active-Duty TRICARE beneficiaries who fill prescriptions outside of military treatment facilities.

Congress has worked hard to close the military-civilian pay gap, but this year's NDAA is once again only set to give our military a 1-percent pay raise for the second straight year.

I believe our military servicemembers deserve a higher pay raise. I will continue to push for that in the future, and I hope it is something we can work together on because we have to keep up with inflation for our men and women in uniform. It is very important.

One of the reasons it is important is that they are our greatest treasure. The reason we have such a wonderful military--we can have the very best equipment, we can have the greatest technology--but the reason we have the best military in the world is because of our great men and women in uniform.

We can never lose sight of that. We can never lose sight of the importance of our all-volunteer force. As we look at where we are with defense spending, one thing that very much concerns me is the incoming impact of sequester again in 2016 and 2017. It is my hope this body will understand and work together in addressing sequester for our defense because I see us continuing to be in a situation where our military leaders come to us and ask us to take from the men and women in a way that is unacceptable because they are worried about sequester, they are worried about the readiness of our troops, and they are concerned they won't be able to provide the training and equipment our troops need to meet and face the threats around the world and to ensure that our men and women in uniform never become part of a hollow force.

The Presiding Officer serves on the Armed Services Committee with me. It is my hope as we look at this NDAA that we don't set a precedent where we are continuing to take from our military, that we continue to look to how we can work together to address sequester in the coming years, because there is a big disconnect of where we are now. If we impose the sequester in 2016 and 2017 with the threats we face around the world, with what our men and women need to address those threats to keep this country safe, what they deserve in terms of our support, given what we are asking them to do--they are the very best, and they go out and do it on our behalf every single day. It is my hope we can work together.

I have addressed these issues in my additional views to the 2015 Defense authorization, and it is my hope we will recognize the treasure that is our men and women in uniform going forward, that we will cut through the partisan politics, that we will address sequester, and that our men and women in uniform will know that we will continue to stand by them.

This Defense authorization is important, but it also prefaces the challenges we face coming forward in 2016 and 2017, which I believe we will not be able to fully meet unless we come together and address sequester.

We do need to get the Defense authorization done today. There are provisions that are very important for our national security. The issues I have addressed as concerns today I hope we aren't addressing them again next year. I hope we can correct them and make sure that we are giving the men and women in uniform a pay raise that is better than this year. I hope that together we can continue to work on a bipartisan basis in the Armed Services Committee, as Chairman Levin has championed, as Senator Inhofe, as the ranking member has done as well, and I look forward to doing that in the future.

I yield the floor.

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