[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 202 (Thursday, December 7, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5837-S5838]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2024--CONFERENCE 
                       REPORT--MOTION TO PROCEED

  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise to express my support for the fiscal 
year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. I am glad that we have 
just brought the NDAA conference report to the floor.
  First, I would like to acknowledge Senator Roger Wicker, Chairman   
Mike Rogers, and Representative Adam Smith, whose partnership has been 
critical for the success of this bill.
  The hallmark of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees has 
long been bipartisanship, and I am glad we have continued that 
tradition for the 63rd consecutive year.
  I would also like to thank my colleagues on the Senate and House 
Armed Services Committees who helped produce this bill, as well as 
Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, Speaker Johnson, and Leader Jeffries, 
who facilitated a thorough debate and enabled all Members to engage in 
the process. We were able to negotiate hundreds of provisions between 
both Chambers over the past few months--the most in many years.
  This is a strong, forward-looking bill that I think we can all be 
proud of. This NDAA is laser-focused on the threats we face. It 
addresses a broad range of pressing issues, from strategic competition 
with China and Russia to countering threats from Iran, North Korea, 
violent extremists, and climate change. The bill authorizes record 
level investments in key technologies, like hypersonics and artificial 
intelligence, and makes real progress toward modernizing our ships, 
aircraft, and combat vehicles.
  Most importantly, this NDAA provides a historic level of support for 
our troops and their families, including the largest pay raise in 
decades.
  I am confident it will provide the Department of Defense and our 
military men and women with the resources they need to meet and 
overcome the national security threats we face.
  I would like to take this opportunity, also, to recognize the 
incredible staff who have made this bill possible. Senator Wicker will, 
I am sure, speak on behalf of the minority staff in just a moment, but 
I wanted to specifically recognize the director of the Democratic 
staff, Elizabeth King, and the director of the Republican staff, John 
Keast. They did a remarkable job, and they have led their staffs with 
professionalism and skill.
  I would also like to thank the members of the Armed Services 
Committee staff: Jody Bennett, Carolyn Chuhta, Jon Clark, Jenny Davis, 
Jonathan Epstein, Jorie Feldman, Kevin Gates, Creighton Greene, Gary 
Leeling, Kirk McConnell, Maggie McNamara Cooper, Bill Monahan, Meredith 
Werner, Mike Noblet, John Quirk, Andy Scott, Cole Stevens, Isabelle 
Picciotti, Alison Warner, Leah Brewer, Sean Jones, Joe Gallo, Brittany 
Amador, Griffin Cannon, Sofia Kamali, Chad Johnson, Julia Coulter, 
Vannary Kong, Noah Sisk, Zachary Volpe, and, once again, staff director 
Elizabeth King.
  That was a long list, but it is a fraction of what they have put into 
this, in terms of time and effort, and we could not have accomplished 
this without them.
  I want to thank the floor staff and the leadership for all they have 
done to make this possible.
  Finally, I urge all my colleagues to support this excellent bill.
  With that, I will yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
  Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, I am pleased and honored to join my 
colleague from Rhode Island, the distinguished chairman of the Armed 
Services Committee, in urging adoption of this important step in 
getting our National Defense Authorization Act passed and signed into 
law.
  It is routine now and profound at the same time. It is routine 
because, as the chair said, this is the 63rd time that this House and 
this Senate will have come together on a bipartisan basis to join hands 
and try to move our national defense forward.
  It is profound because it has become routine, because no matter what 
other things we are discussing and differing about and expressing our 
deeply held views, this is something that we feel must be done every 
year, regardless of the other things that divide us. So the fact that 
it has become routine does make this a profound step, and I am honored 
to be part of that great list of persons who have been part of this.
  Senator Reed is absolutely correct to thank our counterparts in the 
House, Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Smith, and our staff.
  Let me also give a shout-out to the ranking members of the 
subcommittees, who took this from subcommittee to subcommittee to the 
full committee and helped us get started in a very meaningful way: 
Senator Cotton, ranking member of Airland; Senator Mike Rounds, 
Cybersecurity; Senator Joni Ernst, Emerging Threats and Capabilities; 
Senator Rick Scott, Personnel Subcommittee; Senator Dan Sullivan, 
Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee; Senator Kevin Cramer, 
Seapower, a committee that I served on as ranking member and as chair; 
and Senator Deb Fischer, who has worked so diligently in a very 
technical and important area, Strategic Forces.
  And then, as the chair mentioned, I will try not to leave out any of 
the staff--the experts who took our concepts and who were able to put 
them into words that became statutory language. Of course, there is 
John Keast, the staff director on our side, who has been a great 
partner of Elizabeth King; and then other talented, just absolutely 
brilliant and diligent and hard-working American public servants who 
helped get it right: Rick Berger, Brendan Gavin, James Mazol, Greg 
Lilly, Adam Barker, Zach Barnett, Kristina Belcourt, Jack Beyrer, 
Travis Brundrett, Isaac Jalkanen, Kevin Kim, Eric Lofgren, Katie 
Magnus, Jonathan Moore, Sean O'Keefe, Brad Patout, Katie Romaine, Pat 
Thompson, Eric Trager, Adam Trull, Olivia Trusty, and Phillip Waller.
  And I wouldn't be surprised if I have left somebody out, even so, Mr. 
President.
  It does contain some very high hopes and dreams, and I hope this 
legislation builds on an opportunity for further expansion of our 
defense industrial base, because so many of the things that we need to 
do cannot be done unless we have got the resources in place to actually 
put Americans to work making our country stronger.

[[Page S5838]]

  It does contain one of the largest pay raises in decades.
  There will perhaps be more said on final passage, but I am grateful 
to my colleague and friend and fellow veteran, Senator Reed, and I urge 
the passage of this vote.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, first let me thank Chairman Reed of the 
Armed Services Committee for his great leadership, Ranking Member 
Wicker, and all the members of the committee and the conferees for 
their good work in the past few weeks.
  So, in a few moments, I will lay down the NDAA conference report. 
There was a lot of hard work on both sides, and we have reached 
agreement for this year's Defense authorization bill. It is never 
easy--harder now than ever before.
  I will file cloture on the NDAA later today. Members can expect to 
take votes on this early next week.
  At a time of huge trouble for global security, doing the Defense 
authorization bill is more important than ever. The annual Defense bill 
is a prime example of both sides cooperating on a strong bipartisan 
package to strengthen America's national security, to take care of our 
servicemembers, and to keep the United States the leader in innovation.
  When we began the December session, I said the Senate faces three 
important tasks: ending the hold on military nominees, which we did 
earlier this week; getting NDAA done, which we are doing today and 
early next week; and, then, the biggest and hardest of all is passing 
the supplemental.
  We want to get that done as well. It is critical. We are going to 
keep working.


                       Vote on Motion to Proceed

  I move to proceed to the conference report to accompany H.R. 2670, 
the National Defense Authorization Act.
  And now I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The question is on agreeing to laying down the conference report.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran), 
and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Rounds).
  The result was announced--yeas 82, nays 15, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 334 Leg.]

                                YEAS--82

     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blackburn
     Blumenthal
     Boozman
     Britt
     Brown
     Budd
     Butler
     Cantwell
     Capito
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Coons
     Cornyn
     Cortez Masto
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Ernst
     Fetterman
     Fischer
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hagerty
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hickenlooper
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Kaine
     Kelly
     Kennedy
     King
     Klobuchar
     Lankford
     Lummis
     Manchin
     Marshall
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Mullin
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Ossoff
     Padilla
     Peters
     Reed
     Ricketts
     Risch
     Romney
     Rosen
     Rubio
     Schatz
     Schmitt
     Schumer
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Shaheen
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warnock
     Welch
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Young

                                NAYS--15

     Booker
     Braun
     Hawley
     Johnson
     Lee
     Lujan
     Markey
     Merkley
     Paul
     Sanders
     Sullivan
     Tuberville
     Vance
     Warren
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--3

     Cramer
     Moran
     Rounds
  The motion was agreed to.

                          ____________________