Richard B. Nugent: “I want to thank my friend from Georgia (Mr. Woodall). We came in to this Congress together a couple of years back, and I…”

“I want to thank my friend from Georgia (Mr. Woodall). We came in to this Congress together a couple of years back, and I have had the great opportunity to serve with him on the Rules Committee. And being placed on Armed Services last year was a great opportunity for me to be in the process of crafting how our military establishment moves forward. Madam Speaker, in addition to providing an open rule for the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, H. Res. 585 provides for 1 hour of general debate on this year's National Defense Authorization Act. It also makes in order the first of many amendments that are going to be coming forward in the debate over the next couple of days. Because the Rules Committee traditionally does two rules, one for the underlying legislation and the second for the amendments, which I am going to bring forward tomorrow--as we have heard, we have had over 300 amendments come forward on the NDAA this year. My understanding is that is a record. Typically, it is around 200-and-some. This year, it was over 300. So we are going to have the opportunity to hear arguments on both sides as to why an amendment should pass or why an amendment should fail, and that is a good thing. That is what this body is designed to do, to have a dialogue and a discussion back and forth about the merits of a particular issue. I have three sons who currently serve this Nation.…”