'We Need To Wake Up Now': Deb Fischer Demands Immediate Action On The NDAA

last year

During Senate floor remarks, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) urged passage and action on the National Defense Authorization Act.

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Transcript

00:00Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that myself and Senator Tupperville be

00:05permitted to speak for up to seven minutes, Senator Cardin for up to ten

00:09minutes, and Senator Tillis for up to two minutes prior to the scheduled roll call

00:14vote. Without objection. Madam President, as election season approaches, our

00:24political discourse has been heated, to say the least. From an assassination

00:31attempt a couple of weeks ago, to destructive protests across Washington

00:37last week, the friction within America is undeniable. My colleagues and I are here

00:44today to discuss one of the things Americans do agree on, defending our

00:50nation. We all see the tension simmering around Taiwan and South Korea, and the

00:57tension exploding in Israel and Ukraine, and we see the threats China and Russia

01:05pose to our nation. These threats are decades in the making, and while they

01:14sound far away, they are after all around the other side of the world. The

01:20close connections between the security of the world's democracies and the

01:25economies of the world mean that these developments impact our everyday lives.

01:34America should have woken up and gotten ahead years ago, but at the very least we

01:41must wake up now. The most critical job we have in the United States Senate is

01:48providing for our national security, and we do that through our National Defense

01:56Authorization Act. We passed the NDAA out of the Senate Armed Services Committee

02:02last month with bipartisan approval. It includes provisions that will benefit

02:09our service members and that will bolster our national defense. I

02:14supported a pay raise for members of our military and secured funding for

02:20several Nebraska military construction projects. This year's NDAA also included

02:27important provisions to address issues within the munitions industrial base,

02:33contributing to thousands of good-paying jobs throughout the country, while

02:39providing for our national security. The bill incorporated elements of my

02:46Restoring American Deterrence Act to foster a skilled nuclear manufacturing

02:52and vocational trade workforce. We heard about the importance of that need at our

02:59SASC hearing yesterday, when members received the report from the Commission

03:05on the National Defense Strategy. I'm hopeful that the full Senate will

03:11recognize the bipartisan importance of passing the NDAA, just as we did on the

03:17Armed Services Committee. But before we can do that, Majority Leader Schumer must

03:25prioritize bringing the NDAA up for a vote. Just as these threats impact our

03:35everyday lives, so also does our response, or lack thereof. This is a

03:43matter of urgency. Our defense is not something we can deal with in five years,

03:50in 10 years. It's something that we must address now, and we better get started.

03:59If we fail to ensure that we can produce munitions at scale, we will run out of

04:06missiles within a week, within weeks of a conflict. If we fail to field and equip a

04:17modernized Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force, or Space Force, one day she will

04:25think, maybe we can win. Preventing that day will prevent a conflict that would

04:34touch the life of every American citizen, in ways this country hasn't seen since

04:42the Second World War. The Majority Leader should have reflected that by bringing

04:49the NDAA to the floor before the August state work period. And now, he needs to

04:57bring it to the floor as soon as possible. But instead of doing our most

05:03important constitutional job, we've been seeing political show votes on the floor

05:10of the United States Senate. America's safety, America's safety is a bipartisan

05:21responsibility, a bipartisan duty that requires bipartisan commitment. Let's show

05:30Americans that despite all the fights and disagreements, we can unite in the Senate

05:39around the most important issues. We can prioritize our security. And we can, and

05:50we must, pass this year's NDAA. Thank you, Madam President.

'We Need To Wake Up Now': Deb Fischer Demands Immediate Action On The NDAA

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