Jack Bergman: “I thank the chairman for yielding. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of H.R. 8070, the Servicemember Quality of Life…”

“I thank the chairman for yielding. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of H.R. 8070, the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025. I thank Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Smith for their leadership in bringing this critical piece of bipartisan legislation for our national security of our Nation to the floor for the 64th consecutive year. This bill continues to provide resources and capabilities to counter our Nation's number one threat: China. The Intelligence and Special Operations Subcommittee portions of the bill accomplish this by ensuring the Defense Intelligence Enterprise, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, and our Special Operations Forces have the tools required to execute the Department's efforts in strategic competition and in countering malign Chinese actions. There is more work to be done, though. This bill is far from perfect and requires compromises from both sides, but it is an overwhelmingly bipartisan bill that supports our servicemembers and their families by including the recommendations of the Quality of Life Panel to include a 19.5 percent pay raise for our junior enlisted and a 4.5 percent pay raise for all other servicemembers. More importantly, it provides our servicemembers with the resources to accomplish the task our Nation asks of them. This is a critically important bill and essential to our national security, and I urge my colleagues to support it.”