[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 129 (Monday, October 16, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1797-E1798]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 4205, FLOYD D. SPENCE NATIONAL DEFENSE 
                 AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2001

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. MIKE THOMPSON

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 11, 2000

  Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the 
conference report to accompany H.R. 4205, the National Defense 
Authorization Act.
  As a conferee, I first would like to thank the Speaker for appointing 
me and to thank both Chairman Spence, and Ranking Member Skelton, for 
affording me many opportunities to influence the conference 
deliberations and shape a number of provisions. It was an enlightening 
experience and I look forward to future opportunities to work with them 
and my other colleagues to provide for a strong national defense.
  Mr. Speaker, of particular note are the quality of life improvements 
the conference report makes for both active duty and military retirees. 
Representing a large community on and around Travis Air Force Base, I 
know that many of these improvements are long overdue. The improvements 
in health care, especially access for retirees, will provide needed 
reassurance to those who serve our Nation in uniform.
  Mr. Skelton dubbed this year as the ``year of military health care.'' 
I ask my colleagues to note the significant improvements to the TRICARE 
health care system for our active duty, retirees and their families. 
The conference report eliminates co-payments for active duty family 
members in TRICARE PRIME, so those active duty family members are 
treated fairly and equitably. It allows family members to participate 
in TRICARE Prime Remote, so that those who live far from a military 
base, including significant numbers in northern California, have the 
same access to health care. It authorizes reimbursement for travel 
expenses when families must travel long distances to see a specialist. 
It reduces unnecessary referral requirements to improve access to care. 
And, it establishes a permanent chiropractic benefit for our active 
duty personnel.
  As I mentioned, the conference report honors the commitment to our 
military retirees and their families and restores access to lifetime 
military health care. It establishes a pharmacy benefit that allows 
retirees and their dependents to obtain drugs through the National Mail 
Order Pharmacy, a network pharmacy or a non-network pharmacy. No matter 
where you live access to pharmaceuticals will no longer be an issue.
  The conference report also reduces the catastrophic cap for out-of-
pocket expenses from $7,500 to $3,000. It adopts the House-passed 
provision extending the TRICARE Senior Prime Program, more commonly 
known as Medicare Subvention. As a result, military retirees will have 
one of the best health care programs in the country.
  The conference report includes a number of initiatives to improve the 
quality of life for our service members and help the Services in their 
recruitment and retention efforts. It provides a 3.7 percent pay raise 
for all military personnel and includes a targeted pay raise for mid-
grade enlisted personnel.
  Most important for many of the active duty service men and women who 
life off-base, the conference report eliminates the cap and reduces the 
out-of-pocket housing costs for our members to 14.5 percent. To improve 
the quality of life for our junior enlisted families the conference 
report increases housing standards and authorizes $157 million more 
than requested for family housing, including the construction of 64 
family housing units at Travis Air Force Base.
  These are several of the initiatives I am pleased to have played a 
role in fashioning and I would like to thank my subcommittee chairmen, 
Steve Buyer and Joel Hefley, for the opportunity to work with them and 
the other conferees on these personnel and military construction 
issues.
  In fashioning this House-Senate compromise, there are, of course, 
disappointments. I regret conferees did not accept the provision I 
authored to require the Department of Defense to collect and analyze 
the DNA of violent offenders and to provide those analyses to the 
Department of Justice CODIS database. While I don't disagree with their 
view that such a requirement should be government-wide, the bill the 
House passed imposing this requirement is likely to stall in the 
Senate. As a result, we will have lost as much as a year of using this 
DNA in criminal investigations.
  I also regret that the Senate-passed hate crimes measure was dropped 
from the conference report.
  I am also disappointed with a Senate-passed provision directing the 
Departments of Defense and Energy to study ways to ``defeat hardened 
and deeply buried targets.'' Though slightly modified from the 
original, the language still permits limited research and development, 
which could lead to a new low-yield nuclear weapon with earth-
penetrating capabilities.
  As I expressed to other conferees, my concern with developing such a 
weapon is that it is likely to encourage military and political leaders 
to think more readily about using nuclear weapons. In my view, we 
should not lower this threshold or make nuclear weapons a more 
acceptable choice in war. In addition, development of such a weapon is 
contrary to our Nation's goals of reducing and eventually eliminating 
nuclear weapons. To begin development and stockpiling of a new nuclear 
weapon would reverse the difficult achievements the United States has 
made to slow the proliferation of nuclear material and weapons.
  Undoubtedly, reconsideration of this issue will occur next year and I 
look forward to debating it with a new Administration.

[[Page E1798]]

  Lastly, Mr. Speaker, I believe the increased authorizations for 
national missile defense are unnecessary and unwarranted. Rather than 
accelerating program elements, I believe we should have a renewed 
debate, not only about the technological components of NMD, but also 
about the strategic and foreign policy questions it raises. Until those 
questions are fully debated before the American people, it is, in my 
view, unwise to increase NMD authorization levels.
  Mr. Speaker, the conference report before us makes significant 
improvements to our Nation's defense. It takes significant steps to 
address issues associated with operations tempo and aging equipment. 
And, as important, it gives the members of our uniformed services not 
only the weapons, training, and equipment they need to prepare for the 
next war, but also the peace of mind that comes from a home and work 
environment reflective of the important role they perform for America 
and all Americans.
  I urge adoption of the conference report.

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