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National Defense Authorization Bill

Floor Speech

Date: Oct. 5, 2015
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Defense Government Budget and Spending

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Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, we live in an incredibly dangerous world. The number of threats facing our Nation is simply staggering. That is one reason both parties actually came together to pass the national defense authorization bill through both Chambers by very large bipartisan margins. In the Senate, it was 71 to 25; in the House, 269 to 151. A bipartisan committee then worked to merge both Chambers' bills into one.

Republicans on the committee supported that unified Defense bill. Democrats on the committee also supported that unified Defense bill. The House already passed the unified legislation, and we will vote on it here tomorrow.

Americans have every reason to expect that Democrats will vote again to support--not block--America's national defense authorization bill. And yet, at a time when the United States faces numerous conventional, cyber, and terror threats, the Obama administration is goading Democrats into opposing the very legislation that sets out defense policy and authorizes funds for our military.

Democrats just voted to pass America's national defense bill this summer. Now they might filibuster it? This is part of a pattern that should be worrying to all of us. Just consider what we have seen already. The Senate passed a bipartisan veterans funding bill out of the Committee on Appropriations. Democrats voted for and praised the bill at that time; then they filibustered it. The Senate passed a bipartisan defense funding bill out of the Committee on Appropriations. Democrats voted for and praised the bill at that time; then they filibustered it twice.

This really hasn't stopped, Madam President. These are serious times. It is time for Democrats to prove they can be serious as well.

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