On the recordDecember 2, 2020
I think it is important that we acknowledge what is going on right now. What is going on is that the most significant vote of the year is taking place. It is called the Defense authorization bill, the NDAA. It has passed every year for 60 years now. This will be the 60th year it is passed. Nothing else has a record like that. Yet there is always trauma at the tail end, and the reason there is trauma is that everyone knows it is going to pass--and it is going to pass--so anything they can't pass during the normal process of the year, for any number of reasons, they try to put on this as an amendment. Some things are not acceptable because they have the effect of killing the bill. Now, we have two people who have been working with the committees putting this thing together. I know that the Presiding Officer knows this, but these people have worked an entire year and many, many more than half the weekends. People have this idea that people don't work in Washington on causes. They do on this one. John Bonsell in my office has been the director, the support of the bill, with Liz King on the Democratic side. They have worked hand in hand together. People talk about how Democrats and Republicans fight with each other. Not on this bill. We all support it. We all want it. We all want to make sure it is done and it is done right. So we have a defense authorization bill. It will be the largest one that we have had in the history of the Defense authorization bills.…
