[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 175 (Monday, November 14, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6640-S6641]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   National Defense Authorization Act

  Madam President, while we wait for the final ballots to be tallied 
and runoffs to be held, there is still work to be done here in the 
Senate.
  The first item on the agenda should be the National Defense 
Authorization Act. To be frank, I don't know why this is still 
outstanding, why we haven't acted as we have, I believe, for 61 years 
in a row, passing a National Defense Authorization Act, given its 
importance to the safety and security of our Nation.
  Thanks to the bipartisan leadership of Senator Reed and Senator 
Inhofe and our colleagues on the Armed Services Committee, they 
completed their work in the Senate Armed Services Committee last 
summer, but the Defense Authorization Act has just lingered on the 
Senate's agenda without any action by the majority leader, the Senator 
from New York.
  Thanks to bipartisan leadership on the Senate Armed Services 
Committee, they have compiled a strong bill that will strengthen and 
modernize our national defense. But that bill was filed on July 18, 
last summer. In the meantime, nothing has happened here on the floor of 
the Senate, now 4 months later.
  The majority leader has so far refused to provide floor time for the 
Defense authorization bill. This isn't a matter of scheduling. The 
Senate has had plenty of time to work on the Defense bill in September, 
and there was certainly bipartisan appetite to get that done. But the 
Senate majority leader, Senator Schumer, the Senator from New York, 
could not be swayed. He hasn't prioritized our national defense, which 
I believe is the single most important duty of the Members of Congress.
  Given our global risks, this should be our No. 1 priority. Day after 
day, Russia continues its unjustified assault on Ukraine. As it tries 
to find friends on the global stage, it is cozying up to Iran. At the 
same time, the Chinese Communist Party has become increasingly hostile 
to the West, and its threats against the people of Taiwan are as strong 
as ever.
  North Korea has declared itself a nuclear weapons state. The global 
threat landscape is evolving at a pace we haven't seen in a long time.
  We need a strong National Defense Authorization Act that gives our 
commanders the predictability they need to plan and to prepare for the 
future and, hopefully, to deter military conflict--what Ronald Reagan 
called peace through strength.
  It is completely baffling to me that the majority leader has put the 
National Defense Authorization Act at the very bottom of his to-do 
list. Radical nominees can wait. Our national defense must be the top 
priority, and I hope he will put this bill on the floor soon.
  Senators on both sides of the aisle--as I mentioned, the Defense 
authorization bill is a bipartisan bill that came out of the Senate 
Armed Services Committee and was filed July 18, last summer, and 
nothing has happened on the floor of the Senate since then. There is 
one person who can change that, and that is the Democrat majority 
leader, Senator Schumer. I hope he will decide, finally, to get this 
bill on the floor.
  Once the Defense authorization bill passes the Senate, we still have 
to keep the lights on. We have a continuing resolution that expires 
December 16. We have just over a month until the current stopgap 
spending measure expires, and a government shutdown is the last thing 
our country needs.
  Given the fact that this is the end of Democrats' unified government, 
where they have majorities in the House and the Senate and the White 
House, I worry that our colleagues will try to weigh this down with 
tons of partisan freight, sweetheart deals, and earmarks. I am afraid 
they will include every remaining item from the far left's Christmas 
wish list and turn a critical funding bill into a Christmas tree.
  This bill should be as clean of poison pills as much as humanly 
possible. This is not the place to cash in on political chits; there is 
far too much on the line.
  Like all of our colleagues, I am eager to have more clarity on the 
makeup of

[[Page S6641]]

the 118th Congress, but we have work to do before the end of the 117th 
Congress, and I, for one, am ready to get to work.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.