[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 216 (Saturday, December 19, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7843-S7845]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   National Defense Authorization Act

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I first went to meet with the then-
Republican nominee for President of the United States, Donald Trump--
that was October of 2016. I was really struck by his commitment.
  It was kind of an interesting meeting. It was in the Trump Tower, and 
they had 10 people. Ten of us were meeting, each one in one particular 
area of expertise, supposedly. We had people there on energy. We had 
one on healthcare. I was there for the military. And I was very honored 
to be the one to advise him as to some of the issues and to talk about 
that.
  The thing that surprised me is his commitment at that time to 
listening. You have to keep in mind, here is a guy who has been a giant 
in the industry for many, many years, but he has never had anything to 
do with politics or government, really. So it was a learning experience 
for him, and he was actually listening. That was not his reputation, 
but he was doing it.
  I remember he--we had a lot of questions that we asked and comments 
were made. Our conversations that day started a very strong friendship 
that I had with the one who would become President Trump. The President 
was listening closely. He asked good questions. Our conversations that 
day started a strong friendship, where I have been honored to offer him 
friendship, advice, and guidance in the area of the military, and I 
think it serves him well.
  One good example of one of the areas where he was listening to me, 
against the advice of many of the people in his administration, was on 
the issue of Ligado. The President's advisers were trying to convince 
him to go ahead with the deal to sell off the GPS-adjacent spectrum; 
that it was a good thing and so forth. I talked to the President and 
made it very clear that allowing the Ligado deal to move ahead would 
jeopardize our Nation's GPS system, impacting not just the military and 
commercial aviation but farmers who rely on GPS to maintain fields and 
so many more. The results would be devastating, not to mention costly. 
The President got it, and we worked together on that issue.
  I remember telling him how that happened. The FCC--the Federal 
Communications Commission--they were to issue and to give a spectrum to 
Ligado at that time. We were in recess, so I went to them, and I said: 
Don't do anything until we get out of recess so we can be in on this. 
There was a lot of objection to Ligado. So without listening to me, the 
FCC just went ahead and did it--on a weekend, I might add. It had never 
happened before. They never did it on a weekend before, but they did in 
this case. And they gave the order to Ligado.
  Now, the interesting part of this was--this had to do with protecting 
our low-band spectrum from interference. It has nothing to do with good 
work the administration has made to make the bands of spectrum 
available to further our 5G development. That was all there. But that 
is how this happened.
  The largest group I have seen ever come together in the years I have 
been in the House and the Senate on one issue was this issue--and I am 
talking about everyone. You had not just DOD and almost every 
bureaucracy but the airlines, the Farm Bureau, and everybody else. They 
were all in on this thing.
  The President made the comment. He said: You know, anytime you are 
dealing with a bureaucracy and they tell you that something has to be 
done, and it has to be done on a weekend, has to be done at night, then 
you know something is wrong with it. Well, they rushed into it before 
they had the opportunity to do it with everyone being present at the 
time. But that is just another example of how close we were.
  Another example was the Space Force. He wanted to do the Space Force, 
and I understand that. I was not, initially, all that concerned about 
it and supportive of it. But, on the other hand, you have countries 
like China and Russia--our main opposition out there--they have their 
space forces. And I think it is really good that we consolidated all of 
our efforts. We were really working well by consolidating that thing. 
We did that, and we did that together. That was one of the areas where 
we worked together.
  I remember another one was the area of Western Sahara. It is 
something I have been on the floor talking about now for the last 
couple of weeks because Western Sahara has been--we have had the same 
position with Western Sahara since 1966; that is, they were rejected 
from their land in that area of the world, way back during the colonial 
days. In fact, at that time, it was the Spanish Sahara. We were 
devoted, at that time, for a right of self-determination for the people 
of Western Sahara.
  I explained that to the President. At that time, he didn't have a lot 
of interest. He didn't know where Western Sahara was. He didn't really 
have a lot of interest in that. But then he did, and he became 
committed to the idea that we have had a policy for over 30 years in 
our country that we would recognize their right of self-determination. 
So he went along with that.
  We tried to convince him this year's National Defense Authorization 
Act, as someone had told him or advised him wrongly--I am talking about 
maybe some of the people in the President's administration--that 
somehow the NDAA--now, the NDAA has now been passed by the House; it 
has been passed by the Senate; and it is going to be signed into law 
eventually. The President has talked about he might veto it, having 
something to do with that it wasn't strong enough against China. I want 
to get it on the record right now on the Senate floor and make sure 
everyone understands that this is the toughest thing on China. Well, in 
fact, it is not just me saying it. The American Enterprise Institute, 
which is sometimes referred to as the conservative voice of government, 
said that this bill, the NDAA of this year, the one that we passed, we 
just passed, is the toughest bill on China in 20 years.
  Here is why. The national defense strategy--now, this is the book. We 
have to remember, this is something we need to adhere ourselves to. 
This was put together by 12 of the most knowledgeable people in 
America--six Republicans, six Democrats. They got together. This is 
providing for our defense for the future. It is a short book, but it is 
one that we have been living by. And they are very specific in their 
strategy as to where China is.
  So last week, President Trump's Director of National Intelligence 
said

[[Page S7844]]

this--this is a quote--``The People's Republic of China poses the 
greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy 
and freedom world-wide since World War II.'' That was what the Director 
said.
  And from everything I have seen and everything our military leaders 
have told me, Director Ratcliffe is spot-on on this.
  This is another quote. He said: ``Beijing intends to dominate the 
[United States] and the rest of the planet economically, militarily and 
technologically.'' I believe that is true. We have already seen 
evidence of the strategy. Within the last few years, China built its 
first military base outside of its own territory.

  This is kind of interesting because this is a major deviation, what 
China has been doing for decades. They have always initiated any kind 
of a military activity from their own city limits. It all starts in 
China. And this has been going on for a long period of time. So this is 
a major deviation from that. This is a threat that China has, and they 
are against us.
  China has changed. They had this major advance in Djibouti. That is 
the first time that they started a military operation outside of China 
itself. So they did it from Djibouti. I have been down there several 
times. I have flown over the area that they have.
  China is not just in Djibouti, but it is all over the world. But down 
in that continent of Africa, they are as far south as the further 
extremes of China and all throughout. And in Tanzania, Southern 
Tanzania, they are very active down there. This is something that is 
new.
  China is turning islands and reefs in the South China Sea into 
military bases. It is another part of the world. And they have been 
doing this. You all know about this. It has been going on for a long 
period of time.
  In fact, they now are up to seven islands. These are not legal 
islands in their possession, but they took them--they created them. 
They didn't take them; they created them. They made islands out there 
in the ocean.
  If you go and look at what they have proudly displayed on those 
islands, it is as if they are preparing for world war III. That is 
China.
  A lot of our allies in that area are wondering where is America while 
China is doing all of these things. So we are very strongly attuned to 
this.
  This is what is happening today, as we speak. And this is what we are 
addressing in the National Defense Authorization Act on China.
  In South America, China is working to secure a port access to the 
Panama Canal, El Salvador, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and all throughout 
that area. That is right next door to us. They are giving the Chinese 
Communist Party an advantage right in our neighborhood.
  In all these cases, this is not just about military influence but 
economic influence as well. Meanwhile, we are watching as China steals 
our intellectual property and uses it for their own gain.
  A perfect example of this is in hypersonic weapons. Hypersonic 
weapons--a lot of people are not familiar with that. That is state of 
the art. That is a new thing. That is what we have been racing with 
against our two adversaries, both China and Russia. And guess what. 
China and Russia are both ahead of us in hypersonic.
  People have this idea that America has the very best of everything. 
Now, I have to say--and I don't say this critically of the Obama 
administration, but during the last 5 years of the Obama 
administration--that would be between 2010 and 2015--he reduced the 
funding for the military by 25 percent. This is the Obama 
administration. I don't say it critically. He had different priorities 
than I have and other people have. And so at the same time he was 
reducing ours by 25 percent, China had increased in that same period of 
time by 83 percent. Stop to think about that. That is what is happening 
right now.
  The threat they pose is real; it is urgent; and it needs a strong 
response. That is what the NDAA bill does. It takes strong action to 
push China back, to limit their influence, to counter their malign 
behavior, and to balance their military aggression.
  Now, we know the best way to protect American security and prosperity 
in Asia and to ensure that the Indo-Pacific remains free and open for 
all is to maintain a credible balance of military power. There again, 
this is what the NDAA does. It specifically singles out China in that 
effort.
  Until now, the ability to do this was at risk. Now, with the NDAA, we 
are achieving the ``urgent change at significant scale''--again, going 
back to the NDS, what it requires--and we do so by establishing the 
Pacific Deterrence Initiative.
  Remember, the last NDAA we had a year ago was the European 
deterrence. This one we have shifted to the Pacific Deterrence 
Initiative, and that is China and to dissuade China from its current 
trajectory of increasing aggression in the area and in that region. The 
PDI--that is the Pacific Deterrence Initiative--will enhance our 
forward posture in the Pacific and push the Pentagon to get our 
commanders in theater what they need. That is what we are doing now. 
That is what the NDAA is doing specifically against China.
  It will help us put in the right capabilities and the right forces so 
China understands that there is no quick and easy way to have victory 
against us because of the NDAA and the efforts that we are making.
  As we speak right now, the Pacific Deterrence Initiative also deepens 
our cooperation with our allies and partners in that region--building 
up the capabilities that we need to protect ourselves and our allies in 
that area so that they know that we are with them. We are a team with 
them.
  The NDAA authorizes $2 billion this year for that Pacific Deterrence 
Initiative. But more than the investment, we also include the tools 
that will help us make better long-term strategic decisions about 
missions and priorities.
  We saw how well this worked in the European Deterrence Initiative. 
That was last year. Last year, we were concentrating more on Russia. 
This year, it is China. So we saw how well it worked in the European 
initiative, and we can now track our efforts and do the same thing with 
China in the Pacific Deterrence Initiative.
  Now, with the PDI, we are sending a strong signal to the Chinese 
Communist Party, as well as our partners and allies, that the American 
people are committed to defending our interests and values in the Indo-
Pacific. Now, that is China we are talking about.
  The Pacific Deterrence Initiative isn't the only way that we send 
this signal. Elsewhere in the bill, we take steps to strengthen our 
relationship with our critical allies and our partners in the region, 
including Taiwan, India, Vietnam, and Japan.
  The bill requires the Department of Defense to assess how we can 
improve our operations to prevent China and other strategic competitors 
from seizing control of Taiwan and threatening the territorial 
integrity of our defense partners, our partners in that area.
  The NDAA also invests in the equipment that will help us counter 
China, to attack submarines--this is equipment that we have in the 
NDAA: the attack submarines, the precision-guided munitions--many of 
those, I might add, come from our State of Oklahoma--the air and 
missile defense systems, electronic warfare equipment, counter-ship 
capabilities, and a lot more. All of that is in the NDAA.
  The reason I am saying this right now is that I think someone has 
misled the President in thinking that we were not really as aggressive 
as we should be in China, and we are. These are specific things we have 
never seen before. This is all against China.
  It invests in the innovation that will help us build the capabilities 
we need to take care of China in the future--the artificial 
intelligence; hypersonic weapons, where they are still leading us right 
now, as we speak; quantum computing; and directed energy and beyond. It 
is all in the NDAA bill that just passed through the House and through 
the Senate.
  So the NDAA takes these steps to support a forward posture and 
favorable balance of power, but we also have to defend against the full 
spectrum of their malign behavior.
  Part of the problem with China is not just that they are modernizing 
equipment; it is that they are stealing our ideas, our technology, and 
then building on it. They are taking a shot at us and, in all of this, 
doing so illegally,

[[Page S7845]]

but they are doing it very effectively. That is what China does.
  To protect our intellectual property, the NDAA--this is the bill we 
are talking about--creates the mechanisms to restrict employees or 
former employees of the defense industrial base from working for 
companies owned by or under the direction of China.
  Now, this is something that has not been done before. We wake up and 
we find out that some of our industries that we are depending on for 
our defense are very close to China, so we are taking steps to stop 
that now.
  Further, we are requiring universities to, No. 1, share information 
on defense-funded research; No. 2, disclose external funding for 
Federal grant recipients, so those recipients of grants are not working 
with the Chinese; and No. 3, limit funding for universities with 
Confucius Institutes.
  The NDAA also directs the President to create a whole-of-government 
strategy to deter China's industrial espionage and large-scale theft of 
personal information. For the first time ever, we will impose real 
costs on the PRC for this behavior.
  We know a big part of China's strategy is to fly under the radar. 
They don't want us to know what they are doing, so we also establish 
numerous provisions that will give us a better look at just what China 
is up to--all of this in the NDAA.
  Right now, for instance, we don't have a great sense of exactly how 
much China is spending on their national defense. They lie a lot. So we 
task the DOD and federally funded research and development centers to 
conduct a full study of China's defense budget. Now, this is something 
we haven't done before. That is in the NDAA.
  We also establish an ongoing assessment of China's industrial base, 
require a list of Chinese military companies operating in the United 
States to be publicly shared in the Federal Register, and mandate that 
recipients of Federal contracts disclose beneficial ownership. We need 
to know who those people are, and that is set up in the NDAA.
  Over the past few years, it has become clear that we are too reliant 
on China for everything from critical materials to complex manufactured 
items, like parts of naval vessels--and even for medical supplies, as 
we saw just this year. The pandemic really showed us what happened and 
how vulnerable we are. And we are. Everybody knows that.
  The NDAA protects and reforms our defense industrial base to mitigate 
these risks and to attract new performers to replace China, in other 
words, to get out of China any dependence that we have on China. It is 
all in the NDAA.
  That is why the American Enterprise Institute, which has always been 
the conscience, declared that this is the toughest legislation on China 
in the last 20 years.
  Lastly, the NDAA takes steps to protect the U.S. bases overseas by 
requiring the Secretary of Defense to notify Congress of how host 
countries using 5G networks from companies like Huawei and ZTE are 
mitigating the security risks from these networks before we base new 
major weapons systems there.
  The last two NDAAs set the ball in motion when it comes to countering 
China, and with this NDAA, I am confident that we are finally achieving 
the irreversible momentum we need to effectively implement the national 
defense strategy against China.
  There is no turning back now. With this NDAA, we are sending China an 
unmistakable signal that, whether it is today or tomorrow, there will 
never be a good time for China to test America's military.
  I will never forget that 4 years ago we had that meeting in Trump 
Tower, and we had 10 of us in there. We were talking about the military 
at that time. That is when the President became convinced--that is why 
I know that it is not President Trump who is saying this about the 
National Defense Authorization Act; it is advice that he is getting 
from advisers who just are not telling him the right thing.
  Mr. President, I want you to know we have got our foot on the throat 
of China with our NDAA, and we are not going to let it up. And if any 
of your advisers tell you any different than this, they are not serving 
America well.
  That concludes--well, not quite. Today is a very special day. I tell 
everybody who cares or not--not many people do, but I do--this is my 
wife's and my 61st wedding anniversary--today, December 19.
  On the floor of the Senate yesterday, I talked a little bit about 
that and made the comment that I don't want to be here on my wedding 
anniversary, implying that I was not going to be here to vote. These 
votes that we are having right now are among the most critical votes 
that we have had, and I assure you I am going to be here until the last 
vote is cast.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Blackburn). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. TOOMEY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.