[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 206 (Thursday, December 19, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7198-S7200]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I rise to speak on the National 
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020.
  The National Defense Authorization Act conference agreement provides 
crucial resources to our Armed Forces and our national defense, 
including a pay increase for our men and women in uniform. I am proud 
that the Congress was able to come together on a bipartisan basis to 
pass this legislation to support our servicemembers, strengthen our 
national security, and invest in critical projects in my home State of 
Maryland.
  While I have serious reservations about a number of items included in 
this legislation and am particularly disappointed by the exclusion of 
important priorities like the DETER Act to prevent Russian interference 
in our elections, I believe that, on balance, this NDAA will strengthen 
our national security. For that reason, I voted in favor of it.
  With this bill, the Federal Government will now provide 12 weeks of 
paid parental leave to its workforce. We have been fighting for years 
to provide paid family and medical leave to workers throughout the 
country. Now the Federal Government will finally start to lead by 
example. Paid leave will reduce employee turnover costs for the Federal 
Government and help agencies continue to recruit and retain top-notch 
talent into the civil service. I was proud to help secure this, and we 
need to keep fighting until all workers around the Nation receive paid 
family and medical leave benefits.
  The NDAA also repeals the military widow's tax. Currently, military 
widows and widowers who qualify for the VA's dependency and indemnity 
compensation are forced to take a dollar-for-dollar offset from the DOD 
Survivors Benefits Plan benefit, even though their retired spouses 
elected to pay into the program. No other Federal surviving spouse is 
required to forfeit his or her Federal annuity because military service 
caused his or her sponsor's death. This is fundamentally unjust. In 
September, I met with a constituent and military widow who was 
subjected to this offset after the loss of her husband. Hearing her 
story hardened my resolve to ensure that we got this done this year, 
and I am proud of the Congress for coming together to repeal this 
offset.
  Critically, this legislation also includes the Otto Warmbier North 
Korea Nuclear Sanctions and Enforcement Act, which I introduced with 
Senator Toomey. This legislation offers foreign banks and firms a stark 
choice: continue business with North Korea or maintain access to the 
U.S. financial system. Within 120 days of enactment of the law, this 
legislation mandates sanctions on the foreign banks and companies that 
facilitate illicit financial transactions for the Democratic People's 
Republic of Korea. North Korea continues to perfect its ballistic 
missile capabilities and produce more fissile material for nuclear 
weapons. Our aim is to cut off North Korea's remaining access to the 
international financial system and create the leverage necessary for 
serious nuclear negotiations to achieve the goal of the 
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
  The NDAA also includes bipartisan legislation that tracks the 
provision Senator Graham and I included in Senate Foreign Operations 
appropriations bills over the years to prohibit the transfer of the F-
35 Joint Strike Fighter to Turkey until President Erdogan relinquishes 
the Russian S-400 air and missile defense system. Turkey has recently 
started testing the S-400 missile system, and they have said the system 
will be operational early next year. The administration must not only 
continue blocking the transfer of the F-

[[Page S7199]]

35s, but--as Senator Graham and I indicated in a recent letter to 
Secretary Pompeo--it has a legal duty to impose economic sanctions on 
Turkey.
  The NDAA also includes a version of a bill Senator Cotton and I 
introduced to prevent the President from removing Chinese 
telecommunications giant Huawei from the Commerce Department's Entity 
List without certifying to Congress that it is complying with U.S. laws 
and the administration has mitigated the threat Huawei poses to our 
national security. While I was disappointed that our original bill was 
watered down, the final version is still better than the status quo.
  This bill also includes a number of measures I introduced to ensure 
that we give proper recognition to Americans who have bravely served 
our country in combat. One of them is Col. Charles McGee. Colonel 
McGee, a distinguished Tuskegee Airman who recently celebrated his 
100th birthday, is a living aviation legend and an American hero. From 
World War II to Korea, Colonel McGee flew more combat missions than any 
other pilot in the service of his country. The first African American 
to command a stateside Air Force wing and base, this Marylander's 
service to our Nation is truly remarkable. That is why I worked with 
the Air Force and introduced legislation to authorize the honorary 
promotion of Colonel McGee to brigadier general. And today, on a 
bipartisan basis, the Congress has authorized this honor. Colonel McGee 
makes all Marylanders proud and reminds us all of what it means to 
serve.
  The conference report also includes the bipartisan World War I Valor 
Medals Review Act, which I introduced with Senator Blunt. This 
legislation directs the Department of Defense to review the service 
records of minority service members who fought during World War I and 
who may have been passed over for the Medal of Honor because of their 
race or ethnicity. Many of these individuals have never received proper 
recognition for their acts of valor.
  Take, for example, William Butler of Salisbury, MD. In 1916 he was 
living in Harlem, where he enlisted in the New York National Guard. His 
regiment landed in France on Jan. 1, 1918. Sargent Butler received the 
Distinguished Service Cross and the French Croix de Guerre for his 
bravery in rescuing several members of his regiment from their German 
captors. Sargent Butler killed 10 Germans, took a German prisoner, 
freed all the American prisoners, and brought them back to safety. He 
returned home to a hero's welcome. The Baltimore Afro-American called 
him ``Maryland's Greatest Hero.'' The New York Tribune called him a 
``hero among heroes.'' He and the rest of the Harlem Hellfighters 
marched through New York City. Upon his return to Maryland, his small 
community gave him a gold watch as a token of their respect and 
appreciation. But despite a recommendation for the Medal of Honor, he 
never received it. In 1947, after losing the ability to work, he took 
his own life. He was buried at Arlington--with a typo on his tombstone.
  The living descendants of these veterans deserve to know that their 
government, despite its past failings, recognizes their heroism. I am 
very proud of the Congress for coming together to honor those who chose 
to serve their country, even at a time when their country did not treat 
them as equal citizens. In doing so we demonstrate that it is never too 
late to right a historical wrong.
  I would also like to commend the Valor Medals Review Task Force, 
jointly established by the United States Foundation for the 
Commemoration of the World Wars and the George S. Robb Centre for the 
Study of the Great War, which has worked tirelessly to identify World 
War I veteran service records for this review. I applaud the NDAA 
conferees for encouraging the Secretaries of the military departments 
to consult with the Valor Medals Review Task Force to identify those 
service records that warrant further review to determine whether such 
veteran should be recommended for an upgrade to the Medal of Honor for 
valor.
  The NDAA also addresses serious concerns with the oversight of 
privatized military housing. Over the past year, I have engaged with 
leaders at Fort Meade and Aberdeen Proving Ground as they have 
addressed woefully inadequate maintenance by private housing 
contractors. The NDAA includes key provisions of the Ensuring Safe 
Housing for Our Military Act, of which I am a cosponsor. This includes 
withholding payment of the basic allowance for housing under certain 
circumstances, the creation of a Tenant Bill of Rights and the position 
of Chief Housing Officer, a uniform code of basic standards for 
privatized military housing, and access for tenants to an online work 
order system, among other improvements.
  Lastly, I am pleased that the bill includes language requiring 
congressional notification and a 120-day waiting period before the 
President gives notice of his intent to withdraw from the New START and 
Open Skies treaties.
  While I am pleased with many of the provisions included in this bill 
and voted for its passage, I do have significant reservations.
  First, the unchecked growth in the defense budget is unsustainable, 
and the continued use of the overseas contingency operations budget to 
fund elements of the Pentagon's regular base budget activities with war 
funds is a blatant abuse of the budget process. We have a duty to 
ensure the readiness of our forces, and I support efforts to rebuild 
our Armed Forces after years of costly overseas engagements. But 
massive spending increases without clear strategic direction do not 
make us safer, and the use of off-budget accounts to boost Pentagon 
spending is a disservice to our children and grandchildren, who will 
pay for these spending increases regardless of whether or not they are 
properly accounted for today. Especially in a post-Budget Control Act 
environment, where we are not constrained by artificial caps, we need 
to be thoughtful about our spending choices, recognize that every 
dollar spent on defense is a dollar not spent on health care, 
education, workforce training, and other critical areas of need. And we 
need to use OCO in a responsible manner consistent with its original 
purpose, and not as an off-budget slush fund.
  Second, I am extremely disappointed by the Congress's failure to act 
to prohibit U.S. military support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. This 
brutal war has raged for more than 4 years. Thousands have lost their 
lives in this conflict. Millions are displaced from their homes. The 
cycle of desperation, destruction, and death continues unabated. 
Earlier this year, Congress voted to end U.S. support for the war in 
Yemen--legislation that President Trump vetoed. The refusal of 
Republicans to address this issue as part of the NDAA is shameful.
  Third, this legislation supports the President's effort to spend $1.3 
trillion dollars on nuclear weapons. It contains no prohibition on 
fielding low-yield nuclear warheads on submarine-launched ballistic 
missiles, near-full funding for research and development on INF-range 
missiles, near-full funding to build new ICBMs and associated warheads, 
and full funding to retain the B83 megaton gravity bomb, which the 
Obama administration had intended to retire as part of its 
modernization efforts. And while it affirms the benefits of legally-
binding verifiable limits on Russian strategic nuclear forces, it does 
not explicitly endorse the extension of New START. This, like so much 
else in this bill, is a missed opportunity. Senator Young and I have 
introduced bipartisan legislation urging a 5 year extension of the New 
START agreement, and the Senate should pass it expeditiously.
  Fourth, Republicans blocked a provision in the House NDAA that 
prevented the President from waging a war with Iran without an explicit 
authorization from the Congress. President Trump's Iran strategy has 
been blind unilateral escalation with no end goal. That is why his 
actions have produced exactly the opposite result of what his so-called 
``maximum pressure'' campaign intended. President Trump has dismembered 
the multilateral coalition that forged the Iran deal. He has frayed our 
alliances in Europe and empowered our adversaries. All the while, the 
administration has raised the specter of a possible military 
intervention with Iran. By blocking this provision, Republicans are 
enabling the President to subvert Congress's constitutional prerogative 
with respect to decisions of war.

[[Page S7200]]

  Finally, Majority Leader McConnell blocked the inclusion the 
bipartisan DETER Act, which I introduced with Senator Rubio to deter 
future Russian interference in U.S. Federal elections. The DETER Act 
sends a clear message to Russian President Putin or any other foreign 
adversary: If you attack American elections, you will face severe 
consequences. Leader McConnell blocked this measure from the NDAA, even 
though the Senate unanimously passed a resolution in the fall 
instructing the NDAA conferees to support its inclusion. In addition, 
Republican leadership removed a related provision in the House-passed 
NDAA imposing sanctions on Russian sovereign debt in response to 
interference in U.S. elections.
  Leader McConnell's decision to block the DETER Act and the House 
sanctions on Russian sovereign debt effectively green-lights Russian 
interference in future U.S. elections. It is a gift to Russian 
President Vladimir Putin and a subversion of the clear desire expressed 
by both Chambers of Congress to hold Russia accountable for future 
interference. It reinforces Putin's belief that the costs of attacking 
our democracy are low and the rewards are great. It is a dereliction of 
his duty, as a representative of the people, to protect our Nation from 
foreign adversaries. I will continue fighting for the passage of the 
DETER Act. The next national election is less than a year away, and we 
must make clear to Putin that Russia will pay a steep price if they 
interfere in another election.
  While I am strongly opposed to some of the provisions in this bill 
and disappointed by the omission of others, I believe that, on balance, 
the NDAA will strengthen our national security and advance other 
important national priorities. For that reason, I voted in support of 
final passage.

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