[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 204 (Tuesday, December 17, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7089-S7090]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            VOTE EXPLANATION

  Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, I wish to state for the record that 
although an important engagement in Oregon kept me from being present 
in the Capitol to participate in the cloture vote on this year's 
National Defense Authorization Act, NDAA, I would have voted nay had I 
been present.
  I am pleased that the NDAA would phase out the reduction of survivor 
benefit plan annuities to ensure that the families of our fallen 
servicemembers receive the Federal support they need and deserve; would 
guarantee 12 weeks of paid family leave for Federal employees; fence 
funds for the introduction of new Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, 
INF; limit nuclear cooperation agreements under section 123 of the U.S. 
Atomic Energy Act with countries that lack safeguards; and support the 
legally-binding and verifiable limits of the New START Treaty as being 
in the national security interest of the United States. However, other 
aspects of the bill are cause for serious concern, outweighing these 
strong points, and must not be overlooked.
  I am deeply concerned by this legislation's failure to prohibit funds 
for unauthorized war with Iran. There is no doubt that war with Iran 
would be a reckless, disastrous mistake. Yet the President has made a 
number of impulsive, provocative public statements that risk escalating 
tensions. Congress must protect its authority to declare war, and that 
means no blank checks to the administration for an unauthorized war 
with Iran.
  It is also unthinkable that the final NDAA does not prohibit funds 
for intelligence support to the Saudi-led coalition in a war that has 
caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Communities have 
crumbled as a result of this conflict, and an acute cholera outbreak 
and famine have killed more than 85,000 children under the age of 5. 
The United States has no place supporting, prolonging, or being 
complicit in this war's widespread civilian casualties.
  In addition, I am concerned that the NDAA does not prohibit funds for 
the deployment of a low-yield warhead on a submarine-launched ballistic 
missile. The use of this powerful and aggressive tool could drastically 
increase the risk of instigating a destabilizing nuclear arms race.

[[Page S7090]]

  Here at home, the final NDAA conference report removed provisions to 
address PFAS water contamination. More than 16 million Americans 
currently drink water contaminated with PFAS chemicals, which can 
affect every major organ in the human body and put humans at higher 
risk of a wide variety of health conditions and complications including 
liver and kidney damage and thyroid disease. The decision to reject 
remedies to this urgent public health issue in the NDAA is deeply 
disturbing and completely unacceptable.
  Finally, this NDAA does not include adequate safeguards to ensure 
accountability for wasteful defense spending. At a time when America 
far outspends every other nation in the world militarily, while working 
families are grappling with stagnant wages and rising costs of living, 
it could not be more important that the Pentagon and its contractors 
are accountable to American taxpayers. We should be doing far more to 
scrutinize defense spending and to evaluate whether we could maintain a 
strong military while redirecting badly needed funding to the American 
people's priorities on health care, housing, education, and 
infrastructure.
  Mr. President, I wish to state once again that I would have voted nay 
had I been present. I look forward to working with all of my colleagues 
to resolve these critical issues in future bills and to advance the 
health, safety, and well-being of all Americans.

                          ____________________