yesterday, the chair and ranking member of the armed services committee adam smith and mack thornberry released a statement that said, part of which, for 59 straight years, ndaa has passed because members of congress and presidents of both parties have set aside their own policy objectives and partisan preferences and put the needs of our military personnel and american security first. the time has come to do that again. given that it's the very end of the congress, is this late in the date for this bill typically to pass? >> you know, it's not ideal. but it's not atypical. we've seen a lot of up to the wire ndaas in the past. certainly, let's be honest, in the last 50 years, we've seen a lot of up to the wire funding bills passed. and it looks like we're in that situation again. the ndaa is one of those things that the members take great pride, saying the military is a political institution. the national institution of united states is america is a political goal. we can make this happen. mack thornberry who is the ranking member on the house services committee, a republican, former c

national defense authorization act that just passed both chambers of congress carry his name, the mack thornberry national authorization act. there could not be more ways than anyone who improved our great country. so i want to thank mack for his incredible leadership as well as his service and friendship over the years. the halls of congress won't be the same without him, but i know he's eager to spend more time with his wonderful wife sally and the rest of his extended family. mack aspired to do what we all do, and that is to leave congress better than he found it and i thank him for all texans for being the true patriot that he is. as we like to say, everything's a little bit bigger in texas than the rest of the country and that's true not only of mack's district but also the largest congressional district represented by another one of our departing colleagues, will herd. will is a former c.i.a. officer when he was elected to the house of representatives in 2014, and one texan aptly observed, he's been running a marathon like a sprint for seven years. i think will's last congressional race he