Trent Kelly: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of S. 1790, the National Defense…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of S. 1790, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020. I wish to thank Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Thornberry, Chairman Inhofe, and Ranking Member Reed for their leadership throughout the conferencing of this bill. I also want to thank the Military Personnel Subcommittee chairwoman, Jackie Speier, for her hard work and leadership. The strength of our military is our servicemembers, and the strength of our servicemembers is our military families. This bill contains a number of significant policy and funding initiatives that affirm our commitment to our troops and their families. To that end, this bill supports a 3.1 percent military pay raise, extends crucial pay and bonuses for servicemembers in high-demand fields, and eliminates the widow's tax. I want to specifically thank Representative Joe Wilson for his years of tireless work and leadership to make this a reality. Make no mistake, this is all because of Joe Wilson's initiative. This bill also preserves military healthcare by preventing the services from making cuts to healthcare billets before providing additional analysis on the impact those cuts will have on our military health system. It improves accessibility and effectiveness of mental healthcare by requiring DOD to update and standardize procedures related to mental health treatment and substance abuse referrals.…”