[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17945]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             PASSING THE NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT

  (Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, thank you to President Obama for 
working with us to get a real defense authorization bill and for us to 
be able to fix the broken defense bill that was passed previously in 
this House. I was prepared to sustain the veto, but through a very 
instructive and positive budget resolution that we passed just last 
week, we have been able to plus up the defense, and we have been able 
to plus up nondiscretionary defense spending.
  Today, I voted for the defense authorization. Included were 
amendments that I offered that were sustained in the conference report 
which require the Department of Defense to conduct outreach programs to 
assist the concerns of small businesses that are owned and controlled 
by women, veterans, and socioeconomically disadvantaged minorities.
  In addition, my amendment, which provides guidance to the Secretary 
of Defense in identifying HBCUs and minority-serving institutions and 
to assist them in developing and enhancing science, technology, 
engineering, and math, was also kept in the bill.
  Finally, my amendment, which requires the Department of Defense to 
evaluate commercial, off-the-shelf business systems for security, 
resilience, reliability, interoperability, and integration with 
existing interrelated systems, was also incorporated.
  So, in protecting the security of the defense mechanisms, in 
providing opportunities for small businesses, and in working with 
Historically Black Colleges and minority-serving colleges, this bill is 
a good bill.
  I, again, support the fact that we are moving the defense bill 
forward and that we are protecting not only our veterans, but we are 
protecting the men and women who serve us in the United States 
military.

                          ____________________