[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 113 (Monday, July 13, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Page S3781]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 6583. 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 DEFENSE COOPERATION WITH NEW 
                   ZEALAND.

       (a) Strategy.--Not later than 180 days after the date of 
     the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall 
     submit to the congressional defense committees a strategy to 
     enhance defense 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 space, and advanced defense 
     and aerospace 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 the current state of United States 
     defense cooperation with New Zealand, including defense 
     dialogues, military-to-military engagements, information 
     sharing, combined exercises, port visits, personnel 
     exchanges, and other bilateral or multilateral activities.
       (2) 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.
       (3) 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.
       (4) An assessment of opportunities to strengthen 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.
       (5) 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, the Committee on Foreign Relations of the 
     Senate, and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of 
     Representatives 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.
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