[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 129 (Wednesday, July 22, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E664-E665]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  WILLIAM M. (MAC) THORNBERRY NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR 
                            FISCAL YEAR 2021

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. PETER A. DeFAZIO

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 20, 2020

  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I will vote in support of H.R. 6395, the 
William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 
for Fiscal Year (FY) 2021. Make no mistake: I have opposed NDAA 
legislation in previous years, and I still have concerns about a number 
of provisions included in this year's legislation, but this year's 
Democratic-led legislation also contains numerous policy priorities 
that I strongly support.
  First, this legislation grants our men and women in uniform a well-
deserved pay raise of 3 percent. This is the very least we can do for 
those who continue to make extraordinary sacrifices for our country.
  As Chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I fought 
to successfully include vital provisions important to Oregon coastal 
communities. This includes the Maritime Transportation System Emergency 
Relief Act, which authorizes the Maritime Administration to provide 
financial assistance to stabilize and ensure the reliable functioning 
of the U.S. Maritime Transportation System in the event of a national 
emergency or disaster, as well as the Elijah E. Cummings Coast Guard 
Authorization Act of 2020, legislation to authorize funds for, 
reinforce, and support the United States Coast Guard.
  Given the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's jurisdiction 
over the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), I am proud that this 
legislation makes a long-overdue correction to ensure that the more 
than 45,000 FAA employees, as well as VA and other federal civilian 
employees who were inexcusably left out of last year's bill, receive 
twelve weeks of paid parental leave. I am also pleased that this 
legislation prohibits the Department of Defense from excluding any 
civilian employees from their collective bargaining rights.
  As a long-time advocate for strengthening Congress's constitutional 
authority to declare war and limiting executive authority to engage in 
armed conflict without Congress's consent, I strongly support this 
bill's provisions to prohibit U.S. participation in the Saudi-led 
coalition's war in Yemen without congressional authorization. I also 
voted in strong support of an amendment which was adopted to prohibit 
President Trump's dangerous and unnecessary proposals to initiate new 
nuclear weapons testing.
  Given President Trump's ongoing and disturbing use of force on 
peaceful protesters exercising their First Amendment rights--including 
his use of National Guard service members to quell peaceful protesters 
outside the White House--I am pleased that an amendment which I voted 
for, and which was adopted, will add crucial oversight and transparency 
guardrails when a President deploys active duty military within the 
United States. I am also a strong supporter of this legislation's 
provision to require federal law enforcement officers deployed in 
response to public protests to visibly display their name and agency on 
their uniform. This requirement is especially crucial given Trump's 
appalling use of unidentifiable federal agents and unmarked vehicles to 
detain peaceful protesters in Portland, Oregon.
  I am pleased this legislation includes provisions to bolster our 
country's COVID-19 response, including granting important funding for 
the Maritime Security Program (MSP) to enable MSP carriers to keep 
their ships fully crewed despite the lack of cargo as a result of 
COVID-19. To further increase our country's pandemic preparedness and 
response, this legislation establishes a Pandemic Preparedness and 
Resilience National Security Fund and provides additional funding to 
the Department of Defense's (DOD's) Cooperative Threat Reduction 
Program to focus on detecting and confronting biological threats. I 
also strongly support an amendment--which I cosponsored--to ensure the 
president finally uses the Defense Production Act to its full extent in 
order to meet our country's most critical needs to combat COVID-19, 
including securing vital personal protective equipment, testing 
supplies, and more for our frontline healthcare workers and citizens in 
Oregon and across the country.
  Furthermore, this legislation accelerates the closure of the 
Guantanamo Bay detention facility by lifting a restriction on transfer 
of current detainees. This unnecessary prison--estimated to be the most 
expensive in the world--costs approximately $540 million each year to 
house 40 prisoners and has been used as a top recruiting tool by 
terrorists. This prison has been a black eye for the U.S., eroding 
relationships with our allies, undermining U.S. missions abroad, and 
putting U.S. troops and citizens at risk of retaliation.
  While Congress must do much more to achieve racial justice in this 
country, H.R. 6395 takes first steps to move closer to this goal. I am 
pleased that H.R. 6395 takes the long-overdue action of requiring the 
DOD to change the names of all military bases and infrastructure named 
for Confederate individuals within one year, prohibits display of the 
Confederate flag on DOD installations, and adds diversity requirements 
for DOD military and civilian personnel.
  This legislation includes hundreds-of-millions in funding for the 
construction of additional housing and barracks for training and 
enlisted personnel, as well as for oversight and improvement of the 
Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) program. The bill also 
includes a number of provisions to support the education of military 
dependent students, childcare services for military dependent children, 
and maternity uniforms for pregnant servicemembers. The NDAA. also 
continues Congress's work to address the military's culture of sexual 
misconduct by including provisions to enhance the prevention of and 
response to incidents of sexual trauma.
  Far too many of our veterans, especially those that served in Iraq 
and Afghanistan, are grappling with the serious medical complications 
linked to burn pits. While I believe Congress can and must do more to 
care for these veterans, I am pleased that this legislation takes 
modest steps to improve the identification of and care for veterans 
exposed to burn pits.
  I am also pleased this bill includes provisions to assist student 
loan borrowers who have privately held debt, providing $10,000 in 
immediate assistance to pay down the student loan. These students 
received no financial relief under the CARES Act. This provision will 
ensure the 200,000 servicemembers who owe nearly $3 billion in student 
loan debt receive some form of student debt relief during the pandemic.
  This bill includes necessary provisions that help to address PFAS and 
PFOA contamination on military bases that pose a public health threat 
to our military members and Americans living near installations. It 
requires the DOD to make public vital information about the level of 
PFAS contaminates in drinking water and groundwater at these sites. 
Although more can always be done to protect our environment, the bill 
makes an effort to fund climate change research initiatives and 
includes several public lands bills that will help to preserve and 
protect parts of America's wilderness for generations to come. It also 
makes strides toward protecting our most spectacular natural treasures, 
like ensuring the area around the Grand Canyon will not be polluted or 
scarred by mining.
  While I strongly support many provisions in this year's NDAA, I 
believe this legislation should have included additional provisions to 
rein in our bloated and wasteful defense spending, take back Congress's 
constitutional war powers authority, and more.
  I believe this legislation could have made responsible cuts to our 
defense budget without jeopardizing the safety of our troops or 
undermining our national security. For years, Congress has continued to 
increase the Pentagon's budget despite overwhelming evidence of its 
waste and abuse of taxpayer money. That's why I supported an amendment 
to responsibly reduce the Pentagon budget while retaining exceptions to 
protect service members, civilian employees, and the vital Defense 
Health Program from this reduction.
  In particular, I have always opposed the DOD's Overseas Contingency 
Operations (OCO) account, a fiscally irresponsible fund that is not 
counted in the budget, recklessly adds to our mounting debt, and has no 
congressional/oversight. OCO is a Pentagon slush fund that gives a 
blank check to fund endless wars that Congress hasn't authorized. I 
will continue fighting to finally eliminate this irresponsible fund.
  I have long supported a financial audit of the Pentagon. Unlike every 
other federal

[[Page E665]]

agency, the DOD has yet to pass a financial audit. For two years in a 
row, the Pentagon has spectacularly failed full audits, both of which 
highlighted numerous examples of waste and abuse. It is ridiculous to 
provide the Pentagon a massive spending increase--as this bill does--
when the Pentagon cannot even account for how it spends taxpayer money. 
That's why I offered an amendment to require and incentivize each DOD 
component to pass an audit by FY25. Unfortunately, my amendment did not 
receive a vote.
  Along with Yemen, I believe this legislation should have included 
more provisions to take back Congress's constitutional war powers 
authority. That's why I cosponsored an amendment to prevent the 
president from using unauthorized force against Iran and voted in 
support of an amendment to accelerate withdrawal of U.S. troops from 
Afghanistan. I also believe this legislation should have repealed the 
long-outdated 2001 and 2002 authorizations for the use of military 
force (AUMFs), as well as prohibited funding for the deployment of 
dangerous low-yield nuclear weapons. However, I am encouraged that this 
year's House Defense Appropriations bill repeals both the 2001 and 2002 
AUMFs and prevents use of funds for any unauthorized use of force 
against Iran.
  I am also disappointed that several amendments I supported were not 
made in order, including amendments to add several diseases to the VA's 
list of presumptive diseases connected to Agent Orange, to curb the 
Pentagon's 1033 program that transfers surplus military equipment to 
local law enforcement agencies, to block the Trump administration's 
cruel ban on transgender individuals serving in the military, and my 
amendment to abolish the military draft. I also believe this 
legislation could have done far more to prevent the president from 
raiding billions more in funding for his unnecessary, ineffective 
border wall.
  The bottom line is that fiscal responsibility and accountability at 
the DOD would allow for taxpayer funds to be better spent supporting 
the needs of our troops, meeting our obligations to veterans, and 
ensuring our legitimate defense needs are prioritized while also 
bolstering long-underfunded domestic priorities. I strongly encourage 
the Senate to keep the strong House NDAA provisions and not water the 
bill down.

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