Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise to discuss the fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. After several months of negotiations, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees have arrived at a completed conference agreement. Earlier today, we passed the NDAA for the 56th consecutive year. Let me highlight some of the important issues that we addressed in this agreement. This conference agreement authorizes a total of $692 billion, which includes $626.4 billion in base budget funding for the Department of Defense and certain security activities of the Department of Energy and $65.8 billion in overseas contingency operations, or OCO, funding. Of course, we could not have done it without the cooperation of all the members of the committee, including the Presiding Officer, and I thank him for his contribution and his service. This includes the administration's $5.9 billion budget amendment we received earlier this month, which seeks an additional $4.7 billion in base budget funding to bolster missile defense and to repair two Navy ships after recent collisions, as well as $1.2 billion in OCO funding for operations in Afghanistan and for additional capabilities in the Central Command area of operations. The conference agreement includes significant increases in additional resources aimed at restoring full spectrum readiness, as soon as possible, across the military services.…”