Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I, too, thank Mr. Biggs for bringing this amendment to the floor. It is incredibly important that we have this debate. It is important because our European allies need to be listening to it. However, this amendment is misguided in its effect, and it is misguided because this is the National Defense Authorization Act. Any amendment to restrict our options and our operations is to our detriment. Now, the 2 percent target was advocated by the United States at the Wales NATO Summit in 2014. At that time, only three countries met the requirement. This year, in 2024, 22 nations will be meeting the target, and two nations that just joined us in entering NATO, Finland and Sweden, came in already meeting that target. Now, I served as the head of the U.S. delegation of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and had an opportunity as past president to address the Warsaw Summit in NATO in 2016, and I made the exact point that Mr. Biggs is making--Europe must step up to the plate and hit its 2 percent. We should not restrict our ability to have our operations with NATO. Currently, the Supreme Allied Commander is American. NATO doesn't do anything without the Americans leading. If there is a military exercise, it is the NATO U.S. commander who has decided that that operation will occur. To restrict our ability to operate under NATO is misguided and would affect our national defense. It would affect NATO intelligence operations and also all of our interoperability. Mr.…”