S. 4049

Floor Speech

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Mr. REED. Madam President, I rise to join my colleague and chairman, Senator Inhofe, to discuss the fiscal year 2021 national defense authorization bill.

I begin by thanking Senator Inhofe for his leadership in ensuring that we had a bill to consider this year. This was an extraordinary year. Social distancing just began as the Armed Services Committee was finishing our hearings and getting ready to go into the markup for the national defense authorization bill. Despite the uncertainty, the unusual challenges--the logistical challenges particularly--Senator Inhofe ensured that the bill was written and that the markup was held on schedule. He should be commended for this accomplishment. It is a tribute to his leadership, to his wisdom, to his common sense, and to his common decency.

So thank you for that, Mr. Chairman.

I also want to take a moment to thank the staff. Both the chairman and I operate under the same rubric: They do the work, and we get the credit. It works for us--their work for us. They do a superb job. They found ways to draft the legislation. Yet they, too, were disrupted. Their work spaces were separated, and many had to work from home. So this has been an extraordinary achievement, and it is a tribute to their commitment, to their professionalism, to their skill, and to their collaborative, bipartisan effort. I thank them for that.

As the Senator, the chairman, has said and emphasized several times ``bipartisanship.'' This has been the hallmark of this legislation for many, many years. We recall colleagues, going back to John Warner and Sam Nunn and others, who had the attitude that ``we have to work together.'' Again, let me give the chairman credit for preserving that attitude, for insisting upon that attitude, and for really getting, I think, the best out of the committee because of his example and of his setting a tone.

We have differences in the bill, but we are strongly behind this effort. One of the things that I think we have been able to do is to figure out what might be a point of difference and that, if it comes to down to it, we take a vote, and we move on, and we get the bill done. That is what we did this time. We look forward to being on the floor and to doing the same thing--taking amendment proposals from our colleagues and trying to deal with them. If we can include them in the bill unanimously, that will be great. If we need a vote, I hope we can have debate and get a vote.

We all understand that the bill provides the Defense Department with the resources it needs, particularly to ensure that the men and women who defend us have the resources they need not only to fight the fight but, when they return, to have a quality of life with their families themselves that is in keeping with their sacrifice and their service. This bill does that. It also funds at the caps set under the recently enacted Budget Control Act of about 2 years ago, so we are providing the much needed stability the Department needs. It will include many items that benefit the families and military members, and I will go into those details later in our discussion.

Now, 2 weeks ago, the committee took up the bill in the markup. Again, under the leadership of the chairman, we had a very good day of discussion and debate, and the bill was adopted by the committee with a strong bipartisan vote of 25 to 2. This legislation is coming to the floor with overwhelming bipartisan support, and as the chairman indicated, one reason is that he solicited the input of all of the members. We and our staff tried very vigorously to incorporate those proposals and ideas of all members, and at the end of the day, it was a strong, overwhelming vote.

But even though we did consider, as the chairman said, hundreds of different proposals by members of the committee and Members of the Senate, there are still issues that will come before us. That is why, on the floor, I hope we will have, as the chairman indicated, an open debate, that we will consider amendments--hopefully do so under reasonable time constraints so that we can get a lot done--and then, at the end of a vigorous debate, be able to vote for a bill that will advance the welfare of the men and women who serve and advance the common defense, which is our constitutional responsibility.

Again, I thank Senator Inhofe and look forward to the consideration of this bill.

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