[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16416-16417]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, as we speak--as I am speaking on the floor 
of the Senate--in an act of stunning partisan politics, President 
Obama, the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces, has decided he 
will veto the National Defense Authorization Act. He is choosing to 
hold our military hostage for a domestic political agenda, and he is 
doing so at a time when the crises we face around the world have never 
been greater, when U.S. leadership has never been weaker, and when our 
men and women in uniform need vital resources to defend and secure the 
Nation.
  As I said, in an act of stunning partisan politics, President Obama, 
the Commander in Chief, has decided he will veto the national defense 
authorization bill, and he is right now in the act of doing so--holding 
our military hostage for his domestic political agenda.
  I have been in the Senate and the House for a long time. I have never 
seen an act of blatant partisanship with disregard for the men and 
women who are serving in the military than what the President is doing 
as we speak. For 53 years, Congress has fulfilled its constitutional 
duty to provide for the common defense by passing the National Defense 
Authorization Act. For 53 consecutive years, both bodies have passed, 
and the President has signed into law, the National Defense 
Authorization Act. In all my years, I have never witnessed anything so 
misguided, cynical, and downright dangerous as vetoing the Defense 
authorization for reasons that have nothing to do with defense--nothing 
to do with defense.
  Presidents throughout history--Republicans and Democrats alike--have 
recognized the importance of this bill to our national defense. In the 
more than 50 years since Congress has passed an NDAA, a National 
Defense Authorization Act, the President of the United States has only 
vetoed the act four times. In each case, the President objected to an 
actual provision in the bill, and each time the Congress was able to 
find a compromise that earned the President's signature.
  Let's be clear. The President's veto of this year's bill is not over 
any of its policies, it is over politics. In the President's case, 
politics has taken precedence over policies, and when we are talking 
about the lives of the men and women who are serving this Nation in 
uniform--disgraceful. For the first time in history, the Commander in 
Chief will sacrifice national security for his larger domestic 
political agenda.
  This veto will not resolve the spending debate; it will not stop 
sequestration. That is something that can only be done through the 
appropriations process, not a defense authorization bill.
  Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines have answered the call to 
protect our Nation. They want and need support. They don't care what 
budget category that support comes from. I wish to point out we 
authorized exactly the amount of money the President requested.
  This is a Washington game. All the men and women who are serving in 
the military care about is that their mission is fully resourced. With 
this veto, their mission will not be fully resourced. We will put their 
lives in greater danger because of this political game of the 
President--holding the military men and women hostage for his agenda to 
fund the IRS and the EPA.
  The legislation the President vetoed today authorizes the overall 
amount for defense that he requested, every single dollar of it.
  By making clear that he will ``not fix defense without fixing non-
defense spending,'' the President of the United States puts defense and 
the men and women in the military on the same level as the IRS. The 
President is using our military--using our military--as leverage to 
fight a battle that the Defense authorization bill cannot accomplish.
  At a time of mounting threats around the world, it is disgraceful. It 
is disgraceful the President would refuse to authorize for our troops 
the resources they need to prepare for and engage in vital missions 
around the world and that deliver some of the most significant reforms 
to the Pentagon in more than 30 years.
  By vetoing this legislation, the Defense authorization bill, let's be 
clear what the President is saying no to. He is saying no to pay 
increases and more than 30 types of bonuses and special pays for 
servicemembers, saying no to more portability of military health plans 
and greater access to urgent care facilities for troops and their 
families, saying no to enhanced protection against military sexual 
assault, saying no to significant reforms to a 70-year-old military 
retirement system that would extend retirement benefits to over 80 
percent of servicemembers, saying no to the most sweeping reforms to 
our defense acquisition system in nearly 30 years, saying no to a ban 
on torture once and for all, saying no to $300 million in lethal 
assistance for the Ukranians to defend themselves against Russian 
aggression, and saying no to countless other important provisions that 
are greatly needed to combat the growing threats we see around the 
world today.
  Perhaps, most importantly, the President of the United States is 
refusing to sign a bill at a time when--as our top military commanders 
and national security experts have testified before the Senate Armed 
Services Committee--the world has not seen greater turmoil since the 
end of World War II.
  So, my friends, here is the context. Thanks to the President's failed 
policies, the results of leading from behind, the results of a policy 
of ``Don't do stupid stuff,'' we now see a world in a state of 
turmoil--the likes of which we have not seen since the end of World War 
II.
  On a bipartisan basis, we passed a defense authorization bill that 
has monumental consequences to the future security of this Nation, the 
present security of this Nation, and the welfare and ability of the men 
and women who are serving this Nation and their ability to defend this 
Nation, and the President--because he wants an increase in domestic 
spending, has vetoed it.
  Never have I seen such irresponsibility on the part of a Commander in 
Chief. There have been Presidents I have disagreed with. There have 
been Presidents I have had spirited debates with--but never ever in 
history has there been a President of the United States who abrogated 
his responsibilities, his constitutional responsibilities, as Commander 
in Chief. I say shame on him today, and this is a shameful day.
  The House will vote to override this veto on November 5. I strongly 
urge my colleagues to reverse this dangerous action and put the 
interests of our military and national security ahead of politics. Our 
men and women serving around the world, many still in harm's way, 
deserve nothing less.
  I spend a lot of time with the men and women who are serving in the 
military, including members of my own

[[Page 16417]]

family, and they are not uninformed. They are very intelligent. They 
watch what we do--we, their elected representatives. Their voters trust 
us to defend them, care for them, to give them the weapons they need, 
the benefits they need, and the care they need when the wounded come 
back. They rely on us. They are going to see, as we watch Vladimir 
Putin on the march, as we watch the success of ISIS, as we watch 
Ukraine being dismembered, as we watch China commit more aggression in 
the South China Sea and fill in islands--and now? Now this Commander in 
Chief decides that this is a time to veto an authorization bill because 
he doesn't think there is enough domestic spending. It is a sad day, a 
very sad day. It is a sad day for America but most of all it is a very 
sad day for the men and women with whom we entrust our very lives and 
our security. It is a sad day.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.

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