Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act on the floor today is a bipartisan bill that is focused on ensuring our warfighters are prepared to operate across the full spectrum of conflict and to support the objectives laid out in the 2018 national defense strategy. I am disappointed that we were not able to come together and work through a robust, bipartisan amendment process this year on the floor. We had a great markup, and I am thankful that my colleagues across the aisle were so willing to work together in a bipartisan manner on this piece of legislation. As the chair of the Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee, I worked hard with my ranking member, Senator Heinrich of New Mexico, to ensure the NDAA invests additional funding in innovative technologies so that we can maintain U.S. technological superiority over near-peer adversaries, particularly in the areas of hypersonics, unmanned systems, directed energy, and artificial intelligence. The NDAA provides much needed funding to our Special Operations forces, which are playing a key role in combating terrorist networks and countering growing aggression by adversaries like Russia, China, and Iran. It also fully funds SOCOM's request for the Preservation of the Force and Families Initiative and expands key authorities to provide enhanced support to the families of our special operators.…”