‘We’ve Put Together An Excellent Product’: Adam Smith Promotes FY2025 NDAA

3 months ago

During House floor remarks last week, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) spoke about the National Defense Authorization Act.

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Transcript

00:00First of all, I want to really thank the Chairman, as well as the staff, both on the Republican

00:06and the Democratic side, and our bipartisan staff for the process to date.

00:09As the Chairman noted, we produced a very strong bipartisan bill out of committee.

00:14It passed by a vote of 57 to 1 and addressed a number of key concerns to our national security.

00:21And a lot of work went into that.

00:23I always lose track of the exact numbers, but well north of a thousand amendments were

00:27considered in committee, and in the Rules Committee, the staff sifted through all of

00:32those and really helped produce that product.

00:33That is not an easy job.

00:35We are blessed on both sides of the aisle, both on the Armed Services Committee and on

00:39the Rules Committee, with an outstanding staff, and I want to really thank them for their

00:43work in producing this product.

00:44And the number one highlight of the product is what the Chairman mentioned, is the focus

00:49on quality of life for our service members and their families.

00:52We empaneled a group, a task force, to examine quality of life issues, led by Don Bacon on

00:58the Republican side, Chrissy Houlihan on our side, and they really did a remarkable job

01:03of doing outreach to service members, their families, veterans, and listening to them

01:07about what do you need, what is most important to make sure that you have everything you

01:11need to take care of your family.

01:14And certainly one of the biggest issues was pay for junior enlisted.

01:18We upped that pay by 19.5 percent, which is a pretty dramatic number, but it reflects

01:24the need, the need that those service members face in the current environment.

01:28We also focus on childcare, which is a crucial need, building more childcare centers and

01:33eliminating the backlog of people waiting to get access to childcare.

01:38Because we all know that what makes our military the best in the world is not any of the equipment,

01:44it's the people who serve.

01:45We need to take care of the people who serve, and we need to take care of their families

01:49as well.

01:50That is the crucial part of the military.

01:52That's what this bill does better than any bill that we've ever done before in this committee,

01:56and one of the many reasons why this bill is so important.

01:59It is also crucial, as the chairman pointed out, to modernize and update our military.

02:05We are in a rapidly changing environment.

02:08We have seen that in the war in Ukraine.

02:10We saw that in the war in Azerbaijan and Armenia.

02:14Drones, counter-drone, the ability to protect your information systems and make vulnerable

02:19the information systems of your adversaries are now absolutely crucial to fighting.

02:24We have to be able to upgrade that.

02:26I really want to compliment the chairman.

02:28We've worked in a bipartisan way to make sure that we can upgrade our technology more quickly,

02:33to work with those companies who are developing the most innovative technologies so that we

02:37can field them quickly, get our war fighters what they need in a timely manner.

02:42And then there is the matter of production.

02:45We have seen this in the war in Ukraine.

02:47We and our allies need to be able to produce more of the critical ammunition and weapon

02:52systems that we need to fight, and we are making progress.

02:55I think that the Biden administration, and particularly under Secretary Austin, the coalition

03:00that was pulled together in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine is remarkable.

03:05North of 50 countries are now working together to help defend Ukraine, but also, crucially,

03:11to build up the partnerships and alliances and to make sure we have enough weapons to

03:15be an adequate deterrent to our adversaries.

03:18That process is going well.

03:20More needs to be done.

03:21This bill helps move us forward in that direction.

03:23This bill also focuses on oversight, as the chairman mentioned.

03:27We want to free up the military to buy the systems they need by making sure that we don't

03:32continue to spend money on systems that they don't need, and that we exercise proper oversight.

03:37I want to particularly highlight the F-35 program.

03:40It has been a vexing and difficult program that has been over budget and underperforming

03:45for far too long.

03:46In this year's bill, we pare back on the number of F-35s purchased and put that money instead

03:52into making sure that we can get the F-35 that we're paying for, that they can reach

03:57the Block 4 that has been so elusive for so many years.

04:02That is the crucial part of the job we do.

04:04So I think we've put together an excellent product.

04:06I am deeply concerned about the amendment process that will play out over the course

04:10of the next couple of days, but we'll see how that plays out.

04:13The one point I do want to make on this, an area of contention has always been diversity.

04:20The other side has been critical of what the Department of Defense has done to try to recruit

04:25the most diverse people possible.

04:27I will say much more on this throughout the amendment process, but look, we need to be

04:31able to access all the talent in this country, not just white men, okay?

04:38We need to recruit women.

04:39We need to recruit from communities of color.

04:41We need to recruit from the LGBT community.

04:44That is crucial to making sure we have the talent we need.

04:47I hope that this bill doesn't undercut those efforts as we go forward.

04:51As passed out of committee, as it stands right now, this is an outstanding piece of legislation,

04:56and I strongly urge everybody to support it, and with that, I reserve the balance of my

05:00time.

‘We’ve Put Together An Excellent Product’: Adam Smith Promotes FY2025 NDAA

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