National Defense Authorization Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I was pleased that the Senate unanimously agreed yesterday to proceed to conference on the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.

The NDAA is one of the most important pieces of legislation that we pass here every year. It is the bill that authorizes funding for our troops and lays out our defense priorities.

Like the last two NDAAs, this year's bill focuses on restoring military readiness and ensuring that our Nation is prepared to meet threats posed by major powers like Russia and China.

In November of 2018, the bipartisan National Defense Strategy Commission released a report warning that our readiness had eroded to the point that we might struggle to win a war against a major power like Russia or China, and the Commission noted that we would be especially vulnerable if we were ever called on to fight a war on two fronts.

Over the past 2 years, we have made real progress on restoring military readiness, but we still have more work to do.

This year's National Defense Authorization Act continues our investment in ensuring that our military is prepared to meet current and future threats in any domain.

Of course, no matter what weapons or tanks or planes we have, our greatest military resource will always be our men and women in uniform, and this year's NDAA invests in improving the quality of life for our military members and their families. The bill supports a 3-percent pay raise for our troops, and it builds on previous measures to improve military healthcare and housing. It will also provide support for our military families in areas like childcare and professional development for military spouses.

As I said, this bill is one of the most important measures that we pass every year, and we need to make sure that we pass the final version of this legislation before Christmas. Failing to pass this legislation would send the wrong message to our troops and our allies and to our adversaries.

While this may not be a perfect bill, it contains a lot of important provisions to rebuild our military and to give our men and women in uniform the tools they need to defend our Nation. We need to pass it as soon as possible.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source