[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 133 (Tuesday, July 28, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4520-S4521]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   National Defense Authorization Act

  Mr. GARDNER. Madam President, Congress has no greater responsibility 
than providing for a strong national defense and keeping Americans 
safe. The National Defense Authorization Act is one of the most 
important pieces of legislation that is considered each year by the 
U.S. Senate. It authorizes the weapons systems, programs, and resources 
that support the men and women who serve our country in the Armed 
Forces as well as their families.
  Last week, the Senate completed its work on the fiscal year 2021 
National Defense Authorization Act for the 60th consecutive year. The 
bill received, as it should, wide bipartisan support in an 86-to-14 
vote. I was proud to support the NDAA.
  In my home State of Colorado, our military installations, including 
Fort Carson, the Air Force Academy, Buckley, Peterson, and Schriever 
Air Force Bases, along with Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, are on 
the cutting edge of space operations, military training and readiness, 
and protecting our national security.
  I want to thank Chairman Inhofe and the ranking member for their 
bipartisanship at the Senate Armed Services Committee and for doing 
such a great job in fulfilling their tremendous responsibility in 
providing for national defense. It cannot be overstated enough how 
grateful we all are, and I appreciate the time and work they dedicated 
to this effort. The security of the United States should always be more 
important than any partisan politics, and I appreciate their commitment 
to placing national defense above partisan bickering. We have seen how 
even in the most rancorous political times Republicans and Democrats 
can come together through the Defense Authorization Act to renew the 
country's commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific region, such as 
when the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act became law in December 2018.
  As was stated in the U.S. Department of Defense ``Indo-Pacific 
Strategy Report,'' which was released in July of last year, ``This 
legislation [ARIA] enshrines a generational whole-of-government policy 
framework that demonstrates U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-
Pacific region and includes initiatives that promote sovereignty, rule 
of law, democracy, economic engagement, and regional security.''
  Now the U.S. Senate has taken the next step toward renewing the 
country's commitment to the Indo-Pacific region by passing this NDAA 
bill, enshrining and establishing a new Pacific Deterrence Initiative, 
PDI, that will complement ARIA and implement its vision of a more 
robust U.S. military presence in the Indo-Pacific. This initiative will 
enhance the security commitment set forth in ARIA and help guide the 
Congress and the Pentagon in making the tough choices necessary to 
prioritize the Indo-Pacific and to extend critical deterrence 
initiatives to check our adversaries.
  Earlier this summer, Chairman Inhofe and I authored an op-ed entitled 
``Renewing America's Commitment to the Indo-Pacific.'' It described the 
Pacific Deterrence Initiative, which will complement the Asia 
Reassurance Initiative Act and implement its vision of a more robust 
U.S. military presence in the Indo-Pacific.
  Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to have the op-ed in the 
Diplomat of July 2, 2020, be printed in the Record
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                   [From the Diplomat, July 2, 2020]

   Renewing America's Commitment to the Indo-Pacific--A New Pacific 
Deterrence Initiative Will Complement ARIA and Implement Its Vision of 
        a More Robust U.S. Military Presence in the Indo-Pacific

                    (By Jim Inhofe and Cory Gardner)

       As China brashly tries to impose its own system of rules 
     and order in the Pacific, the United States and our allies in 
     the Indo-Pacific confront a time for choosing. We must choose 
     to advance our vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific. We 
     must choose to ensure the success of the principles of 
     regional and global order that remain essential to our shared 
     security and prosperity. These are difficult choices that 
     will come at increasingly greater cost. Beijing will do its 
     best to make sure that the right choice and the easy choice 
     are never the same, but we believe Americans and our allies 
     are up to the task.
       For instance, U.S. allies like Australia are already making 
     the tough choices, while braving Beijing's bluster and 
     bullying. By standing by its calls for an independent inquiry 
     into the origins of the coronavirus and by remaining open to 
     trade while refusing to trade away fundamental values, 
     Australia has set a proud example for all the world. As 
     Beijing lashes out across the region from the Himalayan 
     Mountains to the South China Sea, Australia's actions serve 
     as a reminder for our other allies that in a free and open 
     Indo-Pacific, right makes might--and not the other way 
     around.
       Australia should not be alone in this effort. The United 
     States stands with our allies, and we are prepared to make 
     our own tough choices.
       In the United States, we have seen how even in the most 
     rancorous political times, Republicans and Democrats have 
     joined together to renew the country's commitment to the 
     Indo-Pacific region, like when the Asia Reassurance 
     Initiative Act (ARIA) became law in December 2018. As was 
     stated in the U.S. Department of Defense Indo-Pacific 
     Strategy Report, released in July 2019: ``This legislation 
     enshrines a generational whole-of-government policy framework 
     that demonstrates U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-
     Pacific region and includes initiatives that promote 
     sovereignty, rule of law, democracy, economic engagement, and 
     regional security.''
       In the coming days, the U.S. Senate will take the next step 
     toward renewing the country's commitment to the Indo-Pacific 
     region by passing the National Defense Authorization Act for 
     Fiscal Year 2021, which establishes a new Pacific Deterrence 
     Initiative that will complement ARIA and implement its vision 
     of a more robust U.S. military presence in the Indo-Pacific. 
     This initiative will enhance the security commitments set 
     forth in ARIA, and help guide Congress and the Pentagon in 
     making the tough choices necessary to prioritize the Indo-
     Pacific and extend critical deterrence initiatives to check 
     our adversaries.
       Last year, a seminal report from the United States Studies 
     Centre (USSC) at the University of Sydney provided one of the 
     clearest explanations of why the need for the Pacific 
     Deterrence Initiative is both real and urgent. The report 
     shows how China is attempting to ``undercut America's 
     military primacy'' and ``sowing doubt about Washington's 
     security guarantees in the process.'' In the face of this 
     development, the report describes an ``increasingly worrying 
     mismatch between America's strategy and resources,'' 
     especially in the Indo-Pacific. Even as ``America's military 
     services have started to implement much needed changes,'' the 
     report warns, it's not clear that America will have the 
     ``budgetary capacity or strategic focus to deliver these in a 
     robust and timely way.'' We share these concerns, and the 
     Pacific Deterrence Initiative is designed explicitly to 
     address them.
       First, the Pacific Deterrence Initiative will enhance 
     budgetary transparency and congressional oversight by 
     organizing our defense budget around critical Indo-Pacific 
     priorities. The initiative will make it easier to translate 
     regional priorities into budget priorities, and ensure that 
     security requirements are being matched with the necessary 
     resources.
       Second, the Pacific Deterrence Initiative will focus 
     resources on key capability gaps to give U.S. forces 
     everything they need to compete, fight, and win in the Indo-
     Pacific. The initiative would focus new resources in many of 
     the areas recommended by the USSC report, including a more 
     distributed regional defense posture, resilient logistics 
     networks, fuel and munitions storage, missile defenses for 
     U.S. bases, and more experimentation to test and prove new 
     operational concepts.
       Third, consistent with ARIA provisions, the Pacific 
     Deterrence Initiative will

[[Page S4521]]

     prioritize cooperation with allies and partners across the 
     Indo-Pacific. The initiative will increase security 
     assistance for our regional allies and partners, and invest 
     in interoperability. In the future, we expect the initiative 
     will provide resources to support new mechanisms for 
     deepening regional defense cooperation, including 
     multinational fusion centers and joint training and 
     experimentation.
       Fourth, and finally, the Pacific Deterrence Initiative will 
     help preserve peace in the Indo-Pacific by bolstering 
     credible deterrence. The initiative will focus resources on 
     efforts to deny our adversaries the possibility of a quick, 
     easy, or cheap victory. By injecting uncertainty and risk 
     into the calculations of our adversaries, we can discourage 
     them from choosing the path of aggression.
       The Pacific Deterrence Initiative is by no means a cure-
     all. After all, achieving credible deterrence in the Indo-
     Pacific region is not America's task alone. It can only be 
     realized through a collective effort with our allies and 
     partners such as Australia. Moreover, the challenges we face 
     today are not limited to, or even primarily, military in 
     character. As ARIA emphasized, we must also step up our 
     diplomatic and economic security efforts while remaining true 
     to our values. Nonetheless, we hope the Pacific Deterrence 
     Initiative will serve as another demonstration to our mates 
     in Australia, as well as our other allies and partners in the 
     Indo-Pacific, that America's commitment to the region remains 
     bipartisan and enduring.

  Mr. GARDNER. I would also like to thank my colleagues for their 
bipartisan work on the Defense bill. We had a number of bipartisan 
amendments included and provisions that improve the use of secure 
facility space and make sure military communities have access to clean 
and safe drinking water--an incredibly important issue facing Colorado, 
Colorado Springs, the Fort Carson area, and others as they address the 
PFAS issues this Nation has dealt with.
  I think it is important to remember that when one member of the 
family serves our country in uniform, the entire family serves, and 
this legislation supports military families in Colorado and truly all 
over the world. It provides a much needed pay increase for our military 
members and continues to support military spouses seeking employment.
  The NDAA addresses the challenges servicemembers and their families 
face living in privatized housing. It expands resources to continue to 
address PFAS water contamination in our military communities.
  In Colorado, we are proud to play a very key role in defending the 
United States. Our military installations are critical to national 
security and supporting operations in space. This year's defense 
authorization includes language to ensure there is transparency when it 
comes to selecting the final home for the headquarters--the permanent 
basing decision of U.S. Space Command--and that Space Command's 
critical mission drives the decisionmaking process. That is what we 
ensured through the Defense Authorization Act.
  The bill also supports the ongoing standup of our Nation's newest 
military branch, the U.S. Space Force, to include my legislation 
establishing the Space Force Reserve. The Space Force Reserve will 
mirror its sister military service branches, and as a result, the Space 
Force will better organize the military to handle Space Force's 
operations and bring all military members working in the space domain 
under the same organizational umbrella.
  General Raymond is working hard to make sure the U.S. Space Force is 
agile and prepared to respond to national security threats in the space 
domain.
  As we continue to work in establishing the U.S. Space Force, Colorado 
is proud to continue its support of our Nation's military operations in 
space. That is why in the coming weeks I will be working with my 
colleagues in the Senate to establish the U.S. Space Force Caucus, led 
by bipartisan co-leads and chairs. The caucus will provide my 
colleagues and their staff the opportunity to learn more about military 
space operations and the critical threats we face in the space domain. 
I welcome my colleagues' support and participation in the establishment 
of this caucus.
  Again, I thank my colleagues, Chairman Inhofe and Ranking Member 
Reed, for their work on this important bill, and I am proud to support 
legislation that authorizes $268 million for military construction 
projects in Colorado and provides a 3-percent pay raise for the men and 
women serving our Nation in uniform.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Loeffler). The Senator from West Virginia