[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 222 (Wednesday, December 30, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S7980]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, this is what I have considered to be--and 
I have heard my friend from the Democratic side, the minority side, say 
the same thing, that this is the most significant bill that we pass 
every year.
  It is the NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act. This will be 
the 60th year--is it the 60th or 61st year?
  Mr. REED. The 60th.
  Mr. INHOFE. OK. It is the 60th year that we have passed this, and it 
has passed every year. There were a few moments there where I thought 
maybe it wasn't going to pass this year and we would set a record. 
Senator Reed and I don't want to set that kind of record. We want to 
make sure we get this done.
  The reason this is important is this is the blueprint. This tells us 
what we are going to be doing with our troops. I could make an argument 
that it is really--we are in the most dangerous situation, I think, 
that we have been in before. I have often talked about the good old 
days when we had the Cold War with two superpowers. We knew what the 
Soviet Union had; they knew what we had. Mutually assured destruction 
meant something at that time.
  But now it is different in a lot of respects because you have rogue 
countries out there that have weapons and have abilities to wipe out 
nations. That is why it is so significant.
  So, anyway, we suffered through a little bit of a problem back during 
the Obama administration, during the last 5 years, which would have 
been from 2010 to 2015. In his budget, he downgraded the military by 25 
percent, and that is the same time, during that timeframe, that China 
increased theirs by 83 percent.
  So it is a scary world out there, and it is one that, to me, I have 
no doubt that this is the most important bill that we will pass all 
year because we have got our kids, and they are out there right now. 
They are in the trenches, and we have to support them. That is what it 
is all about.
  I do want to mention how many people are involved in this thing. We 
are actually starting this right now. We are starting next year's NDAA. 
So this started a year ago. The ones working on this--you have Liz King 
and John Bonsell heading up the minority and majority part of the 
committee, doing a great job and working every weekend--almost every 
weekend--with a very large staff, all specialists in certain areas. And 
they have got the bill.
  So I am very proud of the bill that we have this year. I think that 
it passed, when it passed in the Senate, it was 84 to--I think it was 
84 to 14, I think it was. I think there were a couple of people not 
here. But that is the largest--that doesn't happen very often, to pass 
a bill with those margins, and we did.
  So this is a long tradition. We have got to support our troops. They 
are in there doing the right thing. It has been a joy, personally, for 
me to be working with Senator Reed, and we have, together, kind of 
provided the leadership on this thing. We didn't work as hard as the 
staff did. I admit that. But we were there, and I am very proud of this 
bill.
  So right now we have kids that are overseas, and they deserve the pay 
that was increased--that would be increased when this bill is passed. 
Right now, we have critical areas like pilots and engineers, doctors, 
that are in short supply because of the fact that we have had, up until 
the pandemic, a good and probably, I would argue, the best economy we 
have had in my lifetime.
  Well, that is good news, of course, but it is bad news in one way 
because it is hard to keep the people in those critical fields--pilots, 
for example. They have an opportunity to get out and do things that 
are--there are jobs out there that are paying a lot more. So we have to 
have them on the flight hours if something happens. And they are out--
there are a lot of jobs on the outside that are paying more. So we just 
have to make sure that we keep the resources in the right place to do 
the right job.
  So I think this is the--I know this procedural vote today is going to 
bring us, in the next couple of days, to pass the Defense authorization 
bill.
  It is all about the guys and gals in the field. We owe it to them. 
This is going to be the 60th year. I anticipate that this is going to 
pass with very large numbers.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.

                          ____________________