Ndaa

Floor Speech

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Mr. WICKER. Madam President, I want to congratulate and thank my colleague from West Virginia for her remarks and for her leadership to make America strong again so that we can have peace through strength.

The distinguished Senator mentioned a hearing that the Committee on Armed Services had yesterday. Our witnesses were two distinguished experts in the field of national security. The Democrat who testified before us was none other than former Representative Jane Harman of California--a high-ranking committee chair when she was in the House of Representatives and a loyal Democrat, but she is someone who understands that we are not where we need to be under this administration when it comes to national defense. The other witness was Eric Edelman, a very distinguished diplomat and Ambassador.

Their message was absolutely as the Senator said: The United States is not ready to face and to face down and to deter this axis of aggression that threatens the United States as we have not been threatened since 1945. Those are not my words. Those are the words of this bipartisan Commission on a unanimous basis. We are more threatened as a nation than we have been since 1945, and we know what was happening during that decade.

Just over a year ago, in a late-night vote after a long, long day, 86 Senators stood together and passed the National Defense Authorization Act and advanced American security. As I say, we had spent a full day with debate. We had 24 rollcalls. We passed 121 amendments--the most ever adopted on the floor for such a bill--and we overwhelmingly passed the Senate's version of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. We did it in the light of day so that every American could see how their Senators stood on important issues. That was last year.

Over the past several days, we could have done the same thing with this year's National Defense Authorization Act. We could have followed the same procedure, but for whatever reason--and I will speculate on those reasons--the Senate majority leader has allowed politics to stand in the way of such progress of our national security obligations, preventing Americans from seeing in the light of day how their elected Senators feel on some very controversial issues of taking up this important legislation that we do every year in an open process.

The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee has worked hard this year to develop our 2025 NDAA. It is a bill that reflects the overwhelming bipartisan consensus of the committee, and I am pleased to report--and Americans now know--that, in a bipartisan vote, the committee added a $25 billion budget top-line increase specifically designed to address the rising threats of this axis of aggressors: China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and their proxies.

We are entering a long Presidential leadership transition period, and we need to present a strong front to that axis of aggressors that present, as the Commission unanimously said, the most dangerous threat we have had since 1945. The tyrants of these adversaries are watching our every move. They know we haven't taken up this bill in an open process. They are looking for every vulnerability. By passing the NDAA under regular order, we could have shown them that the U.S. Senate backs our servicemembers to the hilt and that we intend to repair the damage that has occurred to our national defense.

Instead, Majority Leader Schumer has allowed the bill to collect dust. The $25 billion top-line increase was a bipartisan choice, and I am grateful to Members on both sides of the aisle for supporting that in the committee, but the majority leader has somehow been afraid that the vote, although passed in a bipartisan measure, would reflect badly on the Biden-Harris administration. The political partisanship has caused him to prevent a full debate on the NDAA. Basically, there are a number of sensitive, leftist issues that the leader wants to prevent some of his vulnerable Members from having to vote on, pure and simple.

We shouldn't let political calculations dictate our national security decisions. Our enemies are working together, and we are not prepared to defend against them. Don't ask the Senator from Mississippi; ask the bipartisan Commission.

Our enemies are helping each other sow chaos around the world in Israel, Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific, Venezuela, where an election was stolen just a few days ago. A snapshot of events from the past week gives us a glimpse of this trend.

On Wednesday of last week, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke before Congress. In my opinion, his remarks were among the most stirring and profound speeches ever delivered to a joint session of Congress. In clear and factual language, Prime Minister Netanyahu testified to the threat from Iran and its proxies. Iran is backing Hamas and Hezbollah--two terrorist organizations who seek nothing short of the elimination of the Jewish State and Israel. Iran has armed the Houthis--another terrorist group who barrage our Navy sailors in the Red Sea.

On the same day as the Prime Minister's address, Russia and China performed their first-ever joint military flight exercise--the first ever in history with Russia and China together--and they did it directly approaching Alaskan airspace, American airspace.

The following day, U.S. prosecutors brought charges against a North Korean operative with cyber attacks on American hospitals and military assets. This is dangerous.

Over the weekend, Hezbollah continued assaulting Israel from the north. The terrorist group launched a horrific rocket attack, killing 12 Israeli children on a soccer field--on a soccer field.

These incidents are not isolated. Each aggressor receives growing support and encouragement from the others, and they follow up on the atrocious October 7 terrorist attack that killed so many Israeli and American civilians--babies, women, children, husbands, and wives--last year.

Yesterday, the Senate Armed Services Committee heard testimony from the National Defense Strategy, as the distinguished Senator from West Virginia said, and I would again emphasize that they didn't mince words. They agree with the recommendation of my white paper--that the United States needs to get back to Ronald Reagan's peace through strength and spend up to 5 percent of our gross domestic product on our security. We need to develop the kind of strength that keeps the axis of aggressors from growing stronger. We need to develop the kind of strength that keeps the axis aggressors from doing anything foolish that would plunge the world into a war.

Leader Schumer should appreciate the stakes and urgency of this moment, and they need to act now to send a strong message now and to do it with the Sun shining on it in the light of day. He should have brought the bipartisan NDAA to the floor instead of covering up for the Biden-Harris administration, instead of shielding vulnerable Democrats from issues like the leftwing social policy that is being forced on our military, and instead of preventing the Department of Defense's resources to be used to secure the border and take on the cartels.

There is no time to waste. While the Democratic leader avoids tough votes, our adversaries launch more missiles. When our leaders place politics above strong defense policy, when America shows weakness, more towns elsewhere fall into the hands of evil regimes.

In this moment of heightened global instability, we have missed a chance to project the kind of American strength that promotes peace, and because of the leader's actions, we will not be able to take this bill up in the light of day. It will be written in secret by a handful of people in a closed room, and that will be the final version.

I regret this. I am sorry that the leader has missed a great opportunity to send a strong signal to our enemies in the light of day and to let the American people know how their elected Senators stand on these important issues.

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