[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 8641]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 MASS SHOOTING IN ORLANDO, NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION AND COMMERCE-
                  JUSTICE-SCIENCE APPROPRIATIONS BILLS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, the terrorist attack in Orlando 
continues to horrify our country. The FBI and our intelligence 
community will determine whether that terrorist was in direct contact 
with ISIL or inspired by ISIL. Either way, this much we know already: 
ISIL is a disgusting group who crucifies children, enslaves women, and 
throws gay men to their deaths from rooftops. They are determined to 
continue exporting their signature brand of inhumanity to our country.
  The principal way we can prevent ISIL-inspired or directed attacks is 
to defeat ISIL. The President has led a campaign intended to contain 
ISIL which has been insufficient to prevent the attacks in Paris or 
Brussels or inspired attacks, such as in San Bernardino.
  We need to do what we can to fight back now to prevent more 
heartbreak like we saw this weekend. That means, for instance, better 
preparing this administration and the next one, regardless of party, to 
deal with threats like ISIL, and we can do so by passing the National 
Defense Authorization Act before us. It will provide our men and women 
in uniform with more of the tools they need to take on these threats. 
It will strengthen our military posture. In short, it will enhance our 
ability to take on the challenges currently facing us and better 
prepare us for those we will face in the future, all while supporting 
our soldiers with better benefits, improved health care, and the pay 
raises they have earned.
  I thank the Senators from both sides who worked diligently to move 
this bill forward. My gratitude extends most deeply to the chairman of 
the Armed Services Committee. Senator McCain has been unwavering in his 
support for our men and women in uniform. He also understands man's 
capacity for inhumanity to man better than most of us, and that is why 
he is so dedicated to taking on these threats. He knows that passage of 
this bill will present a serious and necessary step toward a safer 
country that we all want because, look, we are a nation at war. We are 
a nation under attack. We need to continue taking action to protect our 
country.
  This bill will send a strong signal to the men and women in uniform, 
it will send a strong signal to our allies, and it will send a strong 
signal to our adversaries. We need to pass it, and we need to pass it 
today.
  We will have other opportunities this week to keep our country safe 
and to take on terrorism. We need to defeat, not contain, ISIL, and we 
need the tools necessary to take down terrorists inspired by its brutal 
ideology.
  The appropriations bill we are about to consider offers important 
opportunities to continue this debate. We need to be able to better 
address the threat of lone wolf terrorists. We need to be able to 
connect the dots of terrorist communications in order to disrupt their 
plans. Republicans have offered ideas to take action in areas like 
these.
  The underlying bill, which passed unanimously out of committee, will 
advance a lot of important priorities, such as funding for agencies--
like the FBI--to fight terrorism and funding designed to help defend 
against cyber security threats.
  Chairman Shelby and Ranking Member Mikulski worked diligently to 
advance this bill out of committee and bring it to the floor. Members 
should work with these bill managers if they have ideas they think will 
make the bill stronger. I mentioned some of them already.
  We have made important progress on appropriations bills so far this 
year. We can continue that progress this week and take further steps to 
keep our country safe from terrorism.

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