[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 210 (Friday, December 11, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S7435]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, it is my understanding that the minority 
leader was going to be here, but we are getting very close to the time 
we actually cast our vote at 10:30--just 20 more minutes. In the event 
that the minority leader comes, I will dispense with my remarks and 
defer to him.
  It is my honor to present the 60th annual National Defense 
Authorization Act. For 59 straight years--you can't say this about any 
other piece of legislation, all year or anytime, except the Defense 
authorization bill--we have passed this bill. We have passed this bill 
every year for 59 years, and this will be 60 years, and I anticipate 
that we will pass it now.
  There isn't much that happens around the Capitol that has a track 
record like that. Maybe I am biased, and maybe in some people's minds I 
am wrong, but I think this is the most important bill of the year. I 
really believe that. I have believed that since 1987, and this is 
something that we have to do.
  There is an old document nobody reads anymore called the 
Constitution. In there it tells us what we need to be doing, and that 
is exactly what we are going to be doing today: providing for our 
defense.
  So it is simple what this bill does. It makes our country more 
secure. It supports our troops who defend it.
  Right now this couldn't be more important. As President Trump's 
national defense strategy tells us, we are up against the most serious 
threats we have seen maybe forever. This is coming from China and 
Russia, these countries who stand against everything America stands 
for.
  It bothers me that we went through the last 5 years of the Obama 
administration--that would have been from 2010 through 2015--where he 
criticized the military. We didn't have to have the military, he felt.
  At this time, I would suspend with my remarks.
  Mr. SCHUMER. You keep going for 2 minutes. I will let you know.
  Mr. INHOFE. Let me know, and I will be glad to suspend.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Thank you.
  Mr. INHOFE. Anyway, during that time, during the Obama 
administration, during those 5 years, he reduced the funding for the 
military by 25 percent. Now, this has not happened, in my memory. It 
hasn't happened since World War II that we have gone through a 5-year 
period of doing that.
  And the tragedy is that during that same time, China was increasing 
theirs by 83 percent. Stop and think about that--83 percent--when you 
realize that we were reducing our expenditures by 25 percent while they 
are increasing theirs by 83 percent. Now, that is serious enough, and 
that is something that is very much a concern to many of us.
  So we know that they were increasing, we were decreasing, and, as a 
result, things happened. There are some things that they did--
hypersonics, for example. That is one of the most recent exercises that 
is out there. They are actually, today, as we speak--they are ahead of 
us. Both China and Russia are ahead of the United States of America in 
hypersonics and that type of technology that is out there.
  This President came along--and I know there is a lot of controversy 
about this bill. I know that the President wanted to have something in 
there that was having to do with language that had nothing to do with 
the military. I agree wholeheartedly with him, but you can't. You have 
got to have a defense authorization bill. Our kids in the field demand 
it.
  With the NDAA, we are implementing the policies and programs to make 
sure that this doesn't happen, to ensure that America is able to 
prevent and, if necessary, win wars of today and tomorrow.
  At this point, I would like to defer to the minority leader, and I do 
ask unanimous consent that at the conclusion of his remarks that I be 
recognized to make my remarks.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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