Young Oak Kim: “I rise today to join my colleagues to call for section 708 of the NDAA to be removed from the final bill. As you know, I…”

“I rise today to join my colleagues to call for section 708 of the NDAA to be removed from the final bill. As you know, I am new to the U.S. Senate. I come to the floor today with great humility but also great urgency because, while I am new to the U.S. Senate, I have had the honor of serving the past 6 years as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, just on the other side of this building. During my time as a Member of the House, one of the things I have been most proud to work on is issues involving our military servicemembers and their families. As a House Member, I represented Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, the only triservice joint base in the country. Because of that, I represented tens of thousands of military families who signed up to serve our country. When you talk to military families, the last thing you hear about is politics. In fact, the last thing they want to talk about is politics. Military families often struggle with sufficient housing or putting food on the table. They face inadequacies in healthcare. Military spouses often face barriers to finding work. While it is only the servicemember who swears the oath, it is the whole family that serves. I come to the floor with great urgency because Speaker Johnson sought to politicize this important National Defense Authorization Act by inserting a dangerous provision after the Armed Services Committees in both the House and the Senate came to bipartisan agreement.…”