John Cornyn: “after months of waiting, the Senate is finally on track to take up and pass the National Defense Authorization Act, 13…”

“after months of waiting, the Senate is finally on track to take up and pass the National Defense Authorization Act, 13 days now before Christmas. The pointless delay in this fundamentally critical legislation has been a major point of frustration, not just for colleagues here in the Senate but for the leadership at the Pentagon and the people who need to make plans for America's defense. The Senate Armed Services Committee completed its work last summer, but the majority leader apparently had other priorities and refused to put the bill on the floor until now. It simply wasn't a priority. We spent week after week confirming President Biden's judicial nominees, but the majority leader couldn't seem to find the time to take up and pass a must-pass piece of legislation, the annual Defense bill. And this is not the first time. It is the second year in a row that the Senate has not passed its own version of the National Defense Authorization Act, and so we find ourselves repeating the same bungled process that played out last year. Thanks, however, to Senator Inhofe and Senator Reed and our colleagues on the Armed Services Committee, this bill still reflects the hard work of our Senate colleagues. But I want to underscore how unconventional this year's approach was and make clear why this should not be the norm.…”