Michael Waltz: “I thank Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Rogers for their strong bipartisan product that is worthy of our…”

“I thank Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Rogers for their strong bipartisan product that is worthy of our servicemembers. I also thank the chairman of the Readiness Subcommittee, Representative Garamendi, for his thoughtful and collaborative work on this bill. Mr. Speaker, the threats are growing: Russia, Iran, North Korea, and, most significantly, China's most rapid military buildup that we have seen in modern history. The bipartisan top-line increase above inflation is a positive step, but our defense investments still fail to keep pace with the Chinese Communist Party and their rapid military buildup. Mr. Speaker, I don't want to keep pace. Our servicemembers deserve better. We need to have overmatch over that military buildup. That is how we then keep the peace and maintain deterrence. As the ranking member of the Readiness Subcommittee, I know we cannot continue to afford to use our operations and maintenance accounts to pay for other priorities. Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a teachable moment for all of us. The entire world is witnessing that logistics, training, and maintenance win or lose wars. China's own growing aggression in the vast Indo-Pacific requires more operations and maintenance funding for our partners and allies. We have to keep our forces forward, again, in order to maintain deterrence, and I will oppose amendments that thoughtlessly take from those accounts. We cannot, as a body, continue to rob Peter to pay Paul.…”