On the recordDecember 17, 2024
Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk about the National Defense Authorization Act. The act that is called the NDAA covers a wide range of topics, but, overall, it helps us chart a course to defend our country during these very dangerous times. Russia, China, and Iran are working together to undermine U.S. interests across the globe. A world led by those nations is, in fact, a very dangerous world. And it is a world where the economic well-being of ordinary Americans suffer. I have visited key U.S. allies and partners in recent years, and I am convinced that when we are strong--when the United States is strong--as a nation, we attract like-minded partners who will work with us to push back on our adversaries and defend freedom, not only here for our country but across the globe. And the NDAA is about bolstering our defenses and strengthening those very partnerships. This bill, for example, establishes a Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative. Now, that is modeled after the Indo-Pacific and Ukraine's security assistance initiatives, and it is designed to enable Taiwan to maintain sufficient self-defense capabilities, vitally important in the Pacific and vitally important that we not work just with Taiwan but with all our allies in the Pacific: Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and others.…





