Roy Cooper: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. I am pleased to support the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. I am pleased to support the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act. Thankfully, maintaining a tradition of bipartisanship to get the 60th, a record, National Defense Authorization Act through the House and then through conference with the Senate is no small feat, particularly during a global pandemic. I thank, in particular, our outstanding Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Thornberry for their leadership, as well as Ranking Member Mike Turner for his partnership in the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, and all of the conferees for getting to this point. In particular, I would like to thank Ranking Member Thornberry for his extraordinary leadership on the HASC over the last 6 years, and I am happy to congratulate my friend and colleague, Mike Rogers, as the next HASC ranking member. The Strategic Forces provisions in the bill would not have been in place without the outstanding staff work of Leonor Tomero, Maria Vastola, and Grant Schneider as the lead staffers. These provisions support our nuclear forces and nuclear nonproliferation. They also enhance oversight of the warhead acquisition and plutonium pit production programs, which continue to be major undertakings.…”