Sheila Jackson Lee: “Thank you to President Obama for working with us to get a real defense authorization bill and for us to be able to fix…”

“Thank you to President Obama for working with us to get a real defense authorization bill and for us to be able to fix the broken defense bill that was passed previously in this House. I was prepared to sustain the veto, but through a very instructive and positive budget resolution that we passed just last week, we have been able to plus up the defense, and we have been able to plus up nondiscretionary defense spending. Today, I voted for the defense authorization. Included were amendments that I offered that were sustained in the conference report which require the Department of Defense to conduct outreach programs to assist the concerns of small businesses that are owned and controlled by women, veterans, and socioeconomically disadvantaged minorities. In addition, my amendment, which provides guidance to the Secretary of Defense in identifying HBCUs and minority-serving institutions and to assist them in developing and enhancing science, technology, engineering, and math, was also kept in the bill. Finally, my amendment, which requires the Department of Defense to evaluate commercial, off-the-shelf business systems for security, resilience, reliability, interoperability, and integration with existing interrelated systems, was also incorporated. So, in protecting the security of the defense mechanisms, in providing opportunities for small businesses, and in working with Historically Black Colleges and minority-serving colleges, this bill is a good bill.…”