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Blog
NDAA
Washington, D.C.,
July 12, 2019
To follow up from my post earlier this week about the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the final version of this bill was unfortunately not something I could support. The Senate was able to come together in an overwhelming bi-partisan manner (86-6) on their version of this legislation. Unfortunately, the opportunity for bipartisanship was lost in the House. Our version failed to provide the necessary funding that the Pentagon requested to defend our nation. It failed to prohibit terrorists detained at Gitmo from being transferred to U.S. soil. It would tie the President's hands when it comes to the protection of our southern border. And it does not adequately fund our nuclear arsenal. (Particularly the low-yield nuclear weapons that are arguably more of a strategic deterrent to our enemies than their high-yield counterparts.) No Republicans voted for the House version of this bill, but it still passed. It will now go to a conference committee, where differences between the Senate and House versions will be ironed out. We'll wait to see what comes from that process. |