National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027

Floor Speech

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Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Chair, I thank the ranking member, Mr. Smith, for yielding me the time.

Mr. Chair, today, I have the opportunity to speak briefly with regards to the fiscal year 2027 NDAA.

The bipartisan bill that passed out of committee includes many quality-of-life provisions and priorities for our servicemembers and their families. These issues have an immeasurable impact on our recruitment and our retention efforts as well as on readiness.

The bill includes a targeted pay raise in which junior servicemembers would get higher pay increases. These improvements to servicemembers' paychecks should provide welcome relief to military families who are still struggling with ever-increasing gas and food prices caused by the ill-conceived and poorly executed tariffs and the current war with Iran.

H.R. 8800 also addresses the growing concerns about medical readiness and access to healthcare by reversing efforts by the Department to limit the scope of services available at military treatment facilities. We need to make sure that military treatment facilities and military health systems can deliver a force that is medically ready to deploy at a moment's notice and, just as importantly, we must be sure that the medical providers themselves have the requisite skills to address whatever injuries might come their way.

The bill expands ongoing efforts to improve access to safe and quality childcare by including au pairs in the Child Care in Your Home pilot program and establishing a student internship program to improve recruitment and staffing of military child development centers. It provides a process by which military families executing a permanent change of station will receive timely and relevant relocation assistance and available childcare and food access services in advance of that military duty station move.

Finally, the bill requires the Department to issue regulations banning the Department of Defense personnel from insider trading on prediction markets, a necessary and crucial step in safeguarding our national security.

We brought this bill to the floor in a bipartisan fashion, and I urge my colleagues to reject poison pill riders that will destabilize this important work and to not insert bipartisan politics over the well- being of our servicemembers.

This NDAA, like many previous defense bills, should continue to be bipartisan.

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Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition.

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Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in opposition to this amendment. This amendment would, indeed, eliminate one of the most successful and the very least expensive national security investments the United States has ever made.

Since as far back as 1863, our service academies have welcomed a small number of exceptional international cadets and midshipmen to study alongside America's future military leaders, and the results have been extraordinary.

Those students return home to become generals, chiefs of defense, ambassadors, and senior government officials in their own lands. They leave with lifelong relationships with the Americans that they trained with, alongside, and a firsthand understanding of the American military professionalism, civilian control of the military, and the very values that define our armed services. Those relationships matter.

In moments of crisis, nations do not simply rely on treaties, they rely on trust, and trust is built between people long before it is tested between governments. This program, indeed, builds that trust. It does so for roughly 60 students per service academy each year.

This isn't charity. It is strategy. We educate the future military leaders from allied nations, and we also send our own cadets and midshipmen overseas to study as well. Both sides built on trust, both sides better officers. America is safer because of it.

Show me another defense investment that creates future allies, strengthens military-to-military relationships around the world, and expands American influence for the cost of educating a couple hundred students. You won't find one.

Supporters of this amendment claim that they are putting America first, and I disagree. America leads because other nations choose to train with us, to fight alongside of us, and to learn from us.

Choosing isolation over influence does not make America stronger. It makes America smaller.

If Members are concerned about capacity at these service academies, then let's expand that capacity and fund additional cadets or more ROTC, create more opportunities for more Americans to serve, but do not dismantle a program that has quietly strengthened American national security for generations.

That is not a stronger defense--it is a weaker one--and yet another example of how undervalued and misunderstood American soft power is by this administration.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to reject this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Rogers), the esteemed chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

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Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Maryland (Ms. Elfreth), my friend and colleague and fellow member of the Armed Services Committee.

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Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Chair, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from Maryland.

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Ms. HOULAHAN. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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