[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 106 (Wednesday, June 24, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Page S3231]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 6022. Mr. SCHMITT submitted an amendment intended to be proposed 
by him to the bill S. 4784, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 
2027 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military 
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, 
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for 
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

        At the end of subtitle D of title XII, add the following:

     SEC. 1252. STRATEGY TO ENHANCE SECURITY COOPERATION WITH NEW 
                   ZEALAND.

       (a) Strategy.--Not later than 180 days after the date of 
     the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense, in 
     consultation with the Secretary of State, shall submit to the 
     congressional defense committees a strategy to enhance 
     security cooperation between the United States and New 
     Zealand.
       (b) Purposes.--The purposes of the strategy required by 
     subsection (a) are--
       (1) to strengthen the defense relationship between the 
     United States and New Zealand;
       (2) to improve bilateral and multilateral military 
     interoperability, support security, and stability in the 
     Indo-Pacific region;
       (3) to expand cooperation on advanced defense capabilities; 
     and
       (4) to identify concrete actions to address shared security 
     challenges in the Pacific and Antarctic regions.
       (c) Elements.--The strategy required by subsection (a) 
     shall include the following:
       (1) An assessment of opportunities to improve information 
     sharing and intelligence cooperation, as appropriate, with 
     New Zealand on regional security threats, foreign malign 
     influence, cyber threats, maritime coercion, and activities 
     by strategic threats in the Indo-Pacific and Antarctic 
     regions.
       (2) An assessment of the current state of United States 
     defense cooperation with New Zealand, including defense 
     dialogues, military-to-military engagements, combined 
     exercises, port visits, personnel exchanges, and other 
     bilateral or multilateral activities.
       (3) A roadmap to expand military interoperability between 
     the United States and New Zealand, including through 
     increased participation in joint and combined exercises, 
     expanded staff exchanges, improved operational planning, and 
     greater coordination with Australia and other regional allies 
     and partners.
       (4) An assessment of opportunities to expand defense 
     industrial base cooperation between the United States and New 
     Zealand, including with respect to secure supply chains, 
     aviation sustainment, munitions, maintenance and repair 
     capacity, trusted vendors, and the integration of New Zealand 
     industry into allied defense supply chains, as appropriate.
       (5) An assessment of opportunities to strengthen defense 
     and logistics cooperation with New Zealand in Antarctica and 
     the Southern Ocean, including through the Joint Logistics 
     Pool, Christchurch gateway operations, support for McMurdo 
     Station and Scott Base, cold-weather operations, airlift and 
     sealift coordination, medical evacuation, search and rescue, 
     communications, domain awareness, infrastructure resilience, 
     and contingency planning for disruption of access to 
     Antarctica.
       (6) A list of specific actions, timelines, responsible 
     Department of Defense components, and resource requirements 
     necessary to implement the strategy.
       (d) Form.--The strategy required by subsection (a) shall be 
     submitted in unclassified form but may include a classified 
     annex.
       (e) Briefing.--Not later than 30 days after the date on 
     which the strategy required by subsection (a) is submitted, 
     the Secretary of Defense shall provide the congressional 
     defense committees with a briefing on the strategy, including 
     planned actions, timelines, responsible offices, resource 
     requirements, and any legislative recommendations to enhance 
     defense cooperation between the United States and New 
     Zealand.
                                 ______