Tim Kaine: “I rise to talk about the accomplishments the Senate was able to achieve yesterday with the passage of the National…”

“I rise to talk about the accomplishments the Senate was able to achieve yesterday with the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act. In doing that, I want to highlight a couple of items as a member of the Armed Services Committee that I worked on that I am very proud of but that I think also demonstrate the our ability to work in a bipartisan fashion because the three items I will mention were heavily bipartisan. They also give some illustration of the breadth of the defense authorization act--this act which we pass every year that is hundreds of billions of dollars to support the American military and contains so many different kinds of provisions to try to help defend the Nation and protect those who serve it. What I would love to do, after I say a word about our chair, Senator McCain, is talk about military families, talk about shipbuilding, and talk about smart power. Let me first just give a shout-out to Senator McCain. He was sorely missed as our chairman during the month of May when we were in crunch time in the committee around this bill. It was bittersweet to see its passage yesterday without having him in the Chamber to lead the discussion and be here at passage.…”