[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 189 (Tuesday, December 6, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6972-S6973]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   National Defense Authorization Act

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, well, here we are, again, into the 
month of December with crucial business unfinished. Republicans spent 
months urging the Democratic majority not to neglect this year's 
National Defense Authorization Act, not to leave our Armed Forces to 
the last minute.
  Five months ago, I called on our colleagues to process the Defense 
bill as soon as possible; but, instead, the majority has prioritized 
not just gigantic partisan spending sprees, but also a parade of mid-
level nominations.
  The Democratic leader didn't even bring a Senate NDAA to the floor, 
forcing Senators Reed and Inhofe to conduct an informal conference with 
the House with a weakened hand. When the Republicans controlled the 
government, we put our servicemembers first.
  In 2017, the Senate passed our version of NDAA in September, and we 
had voice-voted the conference report by Thanksgiving. In 2018, the 
Republican Senate was completely finished with NDAA by early August. 
But on Democrats' watch, the Senate's schedule has not matched the 
Nation's needs. We have spent time on less important matters while both 
the authorization and funding for our servicemembers have languished 
until the eleventh hour.
  Even now--even now--House and Senate Democrats are still obstructing

[[Page S6973]]

efforts to close out the NDAA by trying to jam in unrelated items with 
no relationship whatsoever to defense. We are talking about a grab bag 
of miscellaneous pet priorities--like making our financial system more 
sympathetic to illegal drugs or the phony partisan-permitting reform 
in-name-only language that has already failed to pass the Senate 
earlier this year.
  If Democrats wanted these controversial items so badly, they had 2 
years to move them across the floor. Heck, they could have scheduled 
those matters for votes this week. But, no, we are doing more mid-level 
nominations while Democrats keep half-threatening to take our Armed 
Forces hostage over these extraneous matters.
  So there is an old saying that goes ``Poor planning on your part does 
not necessitate an emergency on the part of other people.'' The 
Democrats' failure to plan ahead for unrelated liberal pet priorities 
should not be creating uncertainty and confusion for the brave 
servicemembers who keep us safe.
  My colleagues across the aisle need to cut their unrelated hostage-
taking and put a bipartisan NDAA on the floor.