December 10, 2014
WASHINGTON – Today, Senator Mike Lee made the following remarks regarding consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act:
“Mr./Madam President, the bill before us today at once represents the best of our nation, and some of the worst of Washington. On the one hand, the primary purpose of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) represents the best of America… Of all the bills that come before Congress, the NDAA deserves to be treated with the kind of integrity and respect with which our military personnel approach their jobs every day.
“And yet the process that has unfolded this year has fallen far short of the standard they set for us: Congress has waited until the last minute to conduct our most important business, using the holidays to fabricate a false sense of urgency; the Senate Majority Leader has refused to allow an open and transparent debate, shutting down our ability to offer amendments on the Senate floor; and finally, only a privileged few members of Congress had a hand in drafting this bill, which was cobbled together with numerous extraneous provisions behind closed doors…
“This bill – the NDAA for fiscal year 2015 – is a legislative hodgepodge that includes those straightforward, noncontroversial items that almost all of us support, but also numerous other provisions that are unrelated to national defense. Most egregiously, the drafters secretly added 68 unrelated bills pertaining to the use of federal lands – the so-called “lands package” – into this bill without any opportunity for debate or a vote…
“Another outlier in this legislative grab bag is a provision reauthorizing a Defense Department program to train and equip ‘moderate’ Syrian rebels for the next two years. Now, we have testimony from some of America’s top military leaders warning us of the immense risks involved with this program. They have told us that there is no way to guarantee that these efforts won’t backfire, further embroiling the United States military in volatile and unpredictable Middle East conflicts. Yet here we are, forced to reauthorize this risky program in order to provide for our troops and the Defense Department…
“Now, at the eleventh hour, we’re told that we have to vote for everything in this legislative medley or vote for none of it…
“I fear that we in the Senate have become far too comfortable with the idea that on the most important issues – like paying our troops, funding our defense department, and sending our sons and daughters halfway around the world into harm’s way – it’s okay if we bend the rules to their breaking point. And we allow our colleagues to hijack funding for our men and women in uniform to pass their unrelated, political priorities.”
Click here to read the full speech
