National Defense Authorization Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, the Senate will soon vote on the conference report for the annual defense policy bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act or NDAA. Like all conference reports, this is a product of negotiations between the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Producing a conference report takes dedicated negotiators who are willing to make tough compromises. I commend them for their work, and I particularly want to thank my friend, Senator Jack Reed, who has shown strong leadership as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

I hope these negotiations will be a good omen for how Congress will work under the incoming Biden administration.

But supporting the process that produced this conference report is very different from supporting the report on its merits.

I have voted against the Senate version of this defense bill twice now, once during the rollcall vote in July and then during a voice vote last month. House negotiators have managed to improve the bill since then, but not so significantly that I am able to support it now.

I want to be clear that I support plenty of provisions in this NDAA. I even wrote or negotiated some of the language to improve the bill.

The bill includes anti-money laundering provisions, which I strongly support. I have twice introduced bipartisan legislation to end the abuse of anonymous shell companies, and I am happy to see the NDAA expand upon my efforts.

The conference report will also set in motion a 3-year process to remove Confederate names from military assets. I would have preferred a shorter timeline, but I am glad that Congress will be taking this overdue step to ensure that military bases do not honor traitors who fought to defend the horrific institution of slavery.

And the conference report also includes my amendments to push the Pentagon toward encrypting its computers and to require the Army to provide a plan to finish cleaning up the former Umatilla Army Depot within 3 years.

But I cannot in good conscience authorize $740 billion in military spending--including roughly $70 billion to continue the forever wars-- while Senate Republicans are offering mere crumbs to help folks stay safe from a raging pandemic and help small businesses stay afloat during this unprecedented time.

I said previously that I could not vote for a defense bill with Federal agents actively occupying Portland and treating peaceful protestors like foreign enemies. Donald Trump may have removed much of his occupying force but this bill does nothing to prevent him or any future president from ordering similar abuses.

And I have serious concerns about a provision that will permit the Secretary of the Treasury or the Attorney General to issue subpoenas, with indefinite gag orders, to foreign banks that maintain a correspondent account in the United States.

There may be some limited instances where it may be appropriate to restrict bank employees from notifying account holders about a Federal subpoena to obtain their records, but as a general rule, I oppose indefinite gag orders. I worry this section grants dangerous powers to the executive branch to regulate speech, raising very serious First Amendment and due process concerns. That is why gag orders should not be included automatically with every subpoena and should have an expiration date, so that any restrictions on speech apply no longer than necessary.

I regret that these and other flaws mean that I must continue to oppose this NDAA at this time.

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