Brian Mast: “I rise also today in full support of the National Defense Authorization Act. This bill delivers exactly what America has…”

“I rise also today in full support of the National Defense Authorization Act. This bill delivers exactly what America has needed: bombs and bullets from America for America. It also does something very important to me as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. It rebuilds American foreign policy. What does it do on that front? The NDAA reauthorizes three parts of the State Department's biggest branches: political affairs, management, and public affairs. Now, in the past, less than 15 percent of the State Department has been authorized. This takes that number to about 40 percent, and we are ready to do more work on that front as we move into the next year. This NDAA also modernizes the Development Finance Corporation so that America, not China, can set the pace for global investment. It expands our loan program from $60 billion to $205 billion. That is a really big deal to get America out there on the world stage. Also, with this NDAA, as many know, we are repealing sanctions on Syria that were placed there because of Bashar al-Assad and the torture of his people. We are giving Syria a chance to chart a post-Assad future. We do that while also holding the new government accountable for its actions and giving the White House the flexibility that the White House needs to reimpose sanctions if the President views it necessary to do so. Finally, as was mentioned already and very importantly, we are scrapping the old 1991 and 2002 Iraq war authorizations.”