[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 203 (Monday, December 11, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5884-S5885]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   National Defense Authorization Act

  Mr. President, I would also like to speak briefly on the National 
Defense Authorization Act. The bill authorizes $886 billion for 
America's defense, expanding benefits for servicemembers and 
strengthening national security. It provides a 5.2-percent pay increase 
for our troops and the Pentagon civilian workforce, the largest 
increase in 20 years. Importantly, the conference report excludes a 
number of dangerous partisan provisions that were designed to rip away 
the freedoms of the very Americans whom, every day, we send to defend 
them.
  This bill includes a number of provisions I offered, including to 
uphold Ukraine's territorial sovereignty, as that country fights for 
survival against Russia. Here is this country, hanging on by a thread, 
wondering if the United States is going to come to its assistance as 
people fight and die every single day to stop the invasion of Putin and 
his forces.
  It is hard to imagine that we have reached a point where we have 
promised to stand by a country like Ukraine in this time of testing and 
we have mobilized the NATO alliance and many other nations to join us 
in that effort, and then have the rug pulled out from us by Donald 
Trump, who said he changed his mind on Ukraine.
  To strengthen our security partnerships with our allies, such as the 
Baltics and Australia, we have to stay the course. I am convinced that 
the Ukrainians will prevail. We must show that we are determined to 
help them prove it.
  This year the bill also authorizes many important programs. It is not

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perfect, and it includes an unnecessary extension of section 702. I 
won't go into the details of this complicated mechanism that we have to 
try to detect those who threaten our country, but, from the beginning, 
I raised questions about its compliance with the constitutional 
guarantees of people being safe in the searches and seizures of the 
government. We will continue to discuss this over the weeks and months 
ahead.