National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1735, the fiscal year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, the 54th consecutive Defense Authorization Act, which recently passed out of the Armed Services Committee by a vote of 60-2.

I want to thank Chairman Thornberry for his leadership in getting us here today. Without his guidance, we might have been here with a bill that failed to provide the $612 billion requested by the President for national defense. I wouldn't have been able to have supported that bill. Instead, we do have one that does meet the minimum needs as outlined by Chairman Martin Dempsey.

I am also particularly proud of the provisions of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee's jurisdiction:

We authorize $475 million for the Israeli missile defense, including the U.S.-based coproduction;

We direct development of U.S. military capabilities to counter Russia's violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Putin must recognize that his illegal actions will have real consequences;

We require the adaptation of the Aegis Ashore missile defense sites the U.S. is deploying in Romania and Poland so that they are capable of self-defense against airborne threats. It is simply immoral to deploy U.S. personnel to these sites and then remove an intrinsic self-defense capability;

We strengthen our decision made last year to end U.S. reliance on Russian rocket engines by putting real money behind a new rocket engine program;

We set priorities in NNSA by controlling the size of the bureaucracy, ending ineffective nonproliferation programs, and seriously tackling the $3.6 billion deferred maintenance backlog that we suffer at our nuclear weapons complexes. We can no longer ask the best and the brightest we have to work in decrepit infrastructure.

I am also pleased that language was included to prohibit furloughs at Working Capital Fund facilities, like the Anniston Army Depot, provided there is funded workload. Also included was my amendment with Congressman Rob Bishop that would exempt civilian jobs funded by the working capital fund, like those jobs at the depot, from the planned 20 percent reduction at headquarters.

The Anniston Army Depot is one of the largest employers in east Alabama and is the most efficient production and maintenance facility the Army has.

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