Bill Lee: “I want to thank our ranking member for yielding and for his tremendous leadership on so many of these very critical…”

“I want to thank our ranking member for yielding and for his tremendous leadership on so many of these very critical issues. Mr. Speaker, I rise, though, in strong opposition to the National Defense Authorization Act, which would authorize another $618 billion in spending to our already out-of-control defense budget. It would also expand funding for wars that Congress has never debated. Once again, my Republican colleagues have used an off-the-books spending gimmick to further expand the already-bloated Pentagon budget. Enough is enough. Instead of writing blank checks to the Pentagon, Congress needs to live up to its constitutional obligation to debate matters of war and peace. We need to rip up the 2001 blank check for endless war. We need to stop funding wars without end, with no debate on the costs and consequences to our troops or to the American people. Mr. Speaker, I do have to say that I am pleased that my amendment, which I coauthored with my good friend Congressman Burgess, to report on the audit-readiness of the Pentagon, that amendment passed, but much work remains. So I call on our Speaker to act to bring some accountability to Pentagon spending and to bring forth an authorization to use force to support or oppose these new wars. We need to do our job. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this bill and reject this wasteful spending.”