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Floor Speech
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Mr. THUNE. Madam President, yesterday the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025. I am glad that the Senate will finally take up the bill next week, and it should be on its way to the President's desk soon.
But there is no excuse for the delay. The Senate Armed Services Committee passed its version of the bill 6 months ago--6 months ago. But Leader Schumer never bothered to bring the Senate bill to the floor.
And I can tell you right now that this will not be the case next year with the new Republican majority. Next year, the NDAA will not be placed on the back burner. It will be a priority.
The NDAA--National Defense Authorization Act--is one of the most important bills that we consider each year, and that is even more true in a time of increasing instability on the world stage.
American servicemembers have come under attack from Iran-backed groups in the Middle East. China is taking increasingly brazen actions in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. Russia continues to wage unprovoked war on Ukraine. Israel is defending itself against terrorists. And there is a disturbing trend of collaboration among our adversaries to sow chaos into every corner of the world.
The U.S. military stands guard against these threats and countless others. And it is critical that it has the resources and capabilities it needs to deter threats against America and, if necessary, to respond. But our readiness is not where it needs to be.
Adversaries like China are outpacing us in defense investments. We are falling behind in critical technologies. The number of Air Force planes and Navy ships is approaching record lows. Our supply and production of munitions is inadequate to meet demand. And our military increasingly depends on rapidly aging supplies and infrastructure.
We need to turn this around. And I am pleased that this year's National Defense Authorization Act addresses some of these serious readiness issues. And I want to say right out that it is not a perfect bill.
I am disappointed the bill we will be voting on doesn't include Senator Wicker's proposed--and sorely needed--defense increase, which received bipartisan support in the Armed Services Committee. And I will push for needed additional funding in the coming year.
But I am pleased that this bill directs resources to a number of priorities. It upgrades our capabilities in advanced technologies like hypersonics, missile defense, drones, and artificial intelligence. It addresses our munitions challenges, expands Navy shipbuilding, and reverses the shrinking Air Force fleet.
It ensures the Pentagon is focused on defense, not diversity programs. It supports our allies in Israel and Taiwan. And it provides a pay raise to our troops and a larger pay hike for junior enlisted members.
This bill is a step forward on the path to closing the readiness deficit that we currently have, and South Dakota will play a critical role in closing that gap.
In 2019, the Air Force announced that Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota would host the first B-21 Raider mission. The B-21 will be the backbone of the Air Force's bomber fleet. It will enable the United States to project power and deter threats around the world. And it will employ some of the most advanced technology in executing its stealth missions.
I am proud that this bill fully funds the B-21 at Ellsworth and the support facilities that will be needed to House this critical mission.
When I look at where we are today, it is sometimes hard to remember that not long after I was elected to the Senate, Ellsworth was slated for closure by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission.
I spent some of my first months as a Senator in a sprint to save the base. There were those who wondered whether a small State like South Dakota would have the clout to protect Ellsworth. But we got to work, and with the combined efforts of a lot of people, we kept the base. We proved that closing Ellsworth would not only cost more money, it would diminish readiness. And the Commission voted to keep Ellsworth open.
But we didn't stop there. We went right back to work to make sure that Ellsworth would never be threatened with closure again. And today, it is an undisputed asset to the Air Force and to our national defense.
National defense has always been a priority for me. I believe in peace through strength. I believe that deterrence works, and it is a lot cheaper to invest in a strong military by choice than to spend on a war by necessity.
So I can promise that next year, national security will be a priority in the Senate. We will work to make sure that the military has everything it needs to project American strength and to keep the peace.
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Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Marshall), the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. McConnell), and the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Vance).
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 50, nays 46, as follows: [Rollcall Vote No. 322 Leg.] YEAS--50 Baldwin Bennet Blumenthal Booker Brown Cantwell Cardin Carper Casey Coons Cortez Masto Duckworth Durbin Fetterman Gillibrand Hassan Heinrich Hickenlooper Hirono Kaine Kelly Kim King Klobuchar Lujan Manchin Markey Merkley Murphy Murray Ossoff Padilla Peters Reed Rosen Sanders Schatz Schiff Schumer Shaheen Smith Stabenow Tester Van Hollen Warner Warnock Warren Welch Whitehouse Wyden NAYS--46 Barrasso Boozman Braun Britt Budd Capito Cassidy Collins Cornyn Cotton Cramer Crapo Cruz Daines Ernst Fischer Graham Grassley Hagerty Hawley Hoeven Hyde-Smith Johnson Kennedy Lankford Lee Lummis Moran Mullin Murkowski Paul Ricketts Risch Romney Rounds Rubio Schmitt Scott (FL) Scott (SC) Sinema Sullivan Thune Tillis Tuberville Wicker Young NOT VOTING--4 Blackburn Marshall McConnell Vance
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