the ndaa covers the army, air force, navy, and marines. the coast guard bill, the coast guard authorization act focuses on the heroic men and women in the coast guard. this year, we worked hard on that bill. senate bill 1129, the coast guard authorization act of 2017. i sponsored this bill with chairman john thune, chairman of the commerce committee, ranking member bill nelson, and senator lisa murkowski. this bipartisan bill and it's very bipartisan will give the coast guard the resources it needs to protect our waterways and coastlines, block illegal traffickers and smugglers of drugs and more efficiently procure future cutters, coast guard cutters which our country and my state desperately need. a very, very important bill. in constructing this legislation, we worked in a bipartisan manner for months. however, it appears, despite broad support from both republicans and democrats, the coast guard authorization act, a critical bill for homeland security, for the safety of our mariners and fishermen, and for showing the support of the thou

this ndaa also provides our military service members with the largest pay increase they've seen in eight years. to put into historical context, it authorizes one of the largest defense spending increases since the days of ronald reagan. previous administrations sadly oversaw deep cuts to our armed forces with serious implications for our military readiness and capabilities. this hindered the fight against isis and other enemies of freedom and made our people less safe. in signing this bill today, the president once again made it clear that we are serious about enhancing military readiness, expanding and modernizing our forces, and providing our incredible men and women down range with the tools they need to do what they do best. fight and win. president trump also called on obstructionist democrats in congress to stop threatening to shut down the government. as the president said at this time of grave global threats, congress should send a clean funding bill to his desk that fully funds our great military. we certainly hope that will happen. and we look forward to that taking place. and

this year's ndaa dramatically pluses up the military. it passed out of committee unanimously. unanimously. did you read that in the paper? you didn't. i didn't. and yet, when it went to conference with the house, came back to the senate for a vote, it passed by unanimous consent. that means 100 u.s. senators voted for the ndaa, which the president will sign this week. that is very significant. that is about as bipartisan as it gets. you didn't read about it and that is an important bill for our national security. one that i talked about at aspen, joe kennedy and i had an opportunity to sit in a panel, talking about bipartisanship, the domestic homefront. he and i have a bill that has already passed the senate. he is working hard to get it passed in the house. a topic that all of a sudden is very timely, to bring much more resources to the victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. attorneys to represent, mostly seeingwho as you are across different parts of american society, have been abused. bill, but i huge think it is important bill, and joe's the lead guy in the hous

my question is, we have agreed on an ndaa defense number. we haven't agreed on all of those other great bipartisan priorities that we are talking about. you've made a passionate case today that we shouldn't hold the d.r.e.a.m.er bill #unthostage u we agree on everything else. why is it legitimate to hold our men and women in uniform and their budget hostage until we finish everything else? >> we are not holding our men and women in uniform hostage. you probably know that. nobody is doing that. and i don't appreciate that characterization. i do want to say this. we did have an agreement -- a budget agreement that said there would be parity -- >> i didn't interrupt you at all during your presentation. in the same way that you meant exactly what you said when you called it an act of cruelty to mr. cole's suggestion. >> an act of cruelty. >> i mean exactly what i am saying when i am saying my democratic friends are holding high national security funding hostage until they get the non-defense security bill. and everybody at this table knows it. e

the ndaa increases the size of the american armed forces for the first time in years and provides our military service members with the largest pay increase in eight years. now congress must finish the job by eliminating the defense sequester and passing a clean appropriations bill. it has to be perfecto. at this time of grave global threat, i urged democrats in congress to drop their shut down threats and descend clean funding and a clean funding bill to my dheask fuesk that fully f great military. protecting our country should be a bipartisan issue like today's legislation. we must work across party lines to give our heroic troops the equipment, resources and support they have earned 1,000 times over. together we will send a clear message to allies and a firm warning to our enemies and adversaries. america is strong, proud, determined and ready and i might add when we are complete and it won't be that long, we will be stronger than ever before. by a lot. so thank you to all of our friends in congress and we do appreciate the bipartisan support. we appreciate your hard work on this h

we have agreed -- is, we have agreed on ndaa defense number. we haven't agreed on all of those other great bipartisan priorities we're talking about. mr. woodall: you made a passioned case today we shouldn't hold the dreamer bill hostage until we agree on everything else that you also stimulated was incredibly important as it relates to immigration. why is it legitimate to hold our men and women in uniform and their budget hostage until we finish everything else? ms. pelosi: we're not holding our men and women in hostage, mr. woodall. you probably know that. nobody's doing that. and i don't appreciate that characterization. but i do want to say this, we did have an agreement. an agreement that said there would be parity. mr. woodall: madam leader, i didn't interrupt you at all curing your presentation. in the same way when you said you called it an asket cruelty to mr. cole's suggestion, i mean exactly what i'm saying when i'm saying my democratic friends are holding my national security funding hostage until they get the nondefense everybody a

. >> after the house passed the increased amount both in our ndaa and appropriations bill, the president said that is the number he wants. so the president's number is the number that we put in our bill. >> so you would be taking money that the commander in chief now says he does need to have and an amount that the secretary of defense says he needs to have, and the amount the joint chairman of the chiefs of staffs says he needs. it's pretty clear we need the money. >> the president submitted a budget. our good friend mick mulvaney was involved in the budget. >> i'm aware. i'm telling you the president has changed his mind, which he's entitled to do. >> the only budget request they have given, as far as i know, they have not supplemented that. >> he made a statement we need to increase the amount, particularly in light of what happened in north korea. >> i didn't indicate the president would veto a different amount, but the only budget request that we have received is a spending level that's $18 billion less on defense. >> you're trying to convince us to support your amendment. and i'm t

this ndaa provides our military service members with the largest pay increase they've seen in eight years. it authorizes one of the largest defense spending increases since the days of ronald reagan. previous administrations sadly oversaw deep cuts to our armed forces with serious implications for our readiness and capabilities. this hindered the fight against isis and made our people less safe. in signing this bill today, the president once again made it clear that we're serious about enhancing military readiness, expanding and modernizing our informations and providing our incredible men and women down range with materials what they need to do best. fight and win. president trump called on democrats to stop threatening to shut down the government. as the president said at this time of grave global threats, congress should send a clean funding bill to his desk that funds our great military. we hope that happens and we look forward to that taking place. with that, i take your questions. >> the president said today that senator gillibrand would do anything for campaign contributions. many,

this ndaa also provides our military service members with the largest pay increase they've seen in eight years. to put into historic context, authorizes defense spending increases since the days of ronald reagan. previous administration had deep cuts. this hindered the fight against isis and other enemies of freedom and made our people less safe. in signing this bill today the president once again made it clear we are serious about enhancing military readiness, modernizing our forces and men and women down range to have the tools they do best, fight and win. also called on congress to shut down the government. congress should send a clean funding bill to his desk that funds our great military. we certainly hope that will happen. and we look forwar to that taking place. and with that i'll take your questions. >> thank you, sarah. the president said today senator gillibrand would do anything for campaign contributions chblt many see this as sexual innuendo. what is the president suggesting? >> i think that the president is very obvious. this is the same sentiment that the president has exp

how is this different than past ndaa's?st: over the past several years, defense talks had been wanting a bigger number. 's thate has 20 more f-35 was requested. this has 13 ships, which is five more than what was requested, 20,000 troops, 2.4% increase in military pay, which is not happened in the last eight years. this one also has several billion dollars set aside for missile defense. the white house asked for this, obviously with north korea in the headlines, it has become a big funding issue. host: and so, what does this -- talk a little bit more. what does this budget tell us about the priorities of the trump administration? you mentioned north korea. are there any other things we can glean from this to get an idea as to how what the priorities are for president trump and for general mattis? guest: the priorities are as you expand on the platform of i am going to give you a bigger, better military, the best you have ever seen. military piece to be secured over years have not being funded. and general mattis was in the

this ndaa also provides our military service members with the largest pay increase they have seen in eight years. to put into historical context it authorizes one of the largest defense spending increases since the days of robl reagan. previous administrations sadly everysaw deep cuts to our armed forces with serious implications to our readiness and capabilities. this hindered the fight against isis and other enemies of freedom and made our people less safe n. signing this bill today the president once again made it clear that we are serious about enhancing military readiness, expanding and mrnizing our forces and providing our incredible men and women downrange with the tools they need to be able to do what they do best, fight and win. president trump also called on obstructionist democrats in congress to stop threatening to shut down the government. as the president said at this time of grave global threats congress should send a clean funding bill to his desk that fully funds our great military. we certainly hope that will happen. we look forward to that taking place. with that i

this ndaa also provides our military service members with the largest pay increase they've seen in eight years. to put into historical context, it authorizes one of the largest defense spending increases since the days of ronald reagan. previous administration sadly oversaw deep cuts to our armed forces with serious implications for our military readiness and capabilities. this hindered the fight against isis and other enemies of freedom and made our people less safe. in signing this bill today, the president once again made it clear that we are serious about enhancing military readiness, expanding and modernizing our forces, and providing our incredible men and women the tools down range to do what they need to do best. fight and win. president trump also called on obstructionist democrats in congress to stop threatening to shut down the government. as the president said at this time grave global threats. congress should send a clean funding bill that funds our military. we certainly hope that will happen, and we look forward to that taking place. and with that, i will take your questio

i had a bill that is now part of the ndaa. very bipartisan. 28 senators.crats and republicans supporting a really strong missile defense system for america. that has never happened before. missile defense is always been partisan. now it is bipartisan. so that is important, a key element of our strategy.and i also support secretary mattis, hr mcmaster talked about it. the development of credible military options. everybody here knows we have serious credible military actions it actually makes you diplomacy more effective. what i have said publicly and privately, to them, is part of your credible military options as a preventative or preemptive ground for on the korean peninsula launched by the united states. they need the authorization from congress. to do that. so, matter of fact, a couple of centers, prominent senators. right now we are working on not the resolution for that but a senate resolution that says we are supportive of what they are doing but if they move forward, again, preemptive, preventative. kind of like the gulf war in 1990 or 2003. that i

of a priority, that we agreed on what the defense level should be when we authorized it through the ndaa we have agreed in a bipartisan way to fund the military, and so there is no need to wait on that deal, we can act today because as you said about the dreamer issue, it is a separate, clear issue that requires immediate action. we have an emergency, that is exactly true of our national security. can we commit to that today in the same way that you have a legitimate case to make that lets solve the dreamers by itself, let's do that as a individual issue, that we can do that for national security too, that we -- that the troops we promise to pay raise to that are not going to get it, can we commit to getting that done together? because your cases persuasive, but it should be persuasive for the men and women serving as around the globe, as well. >> is that a question? thank you. we have had many conversations and meetings with general mattis and our objection is not to the bill, we want to see what the money is for, we want to modernize our forces. everybody has enormous respect for him a

the ndaa increases the size of the american armed forces for the first time in seven years and provides our military servicemembers with their largest pay increase in eight years. now congress must finish the job by eliminating the defense sequester and passing a clean appropriations bill. i think it is going to happen. we need our military. it has got to be perfecto. at this time of grave global threats i urge democrats in congress to drop share shutdown threats and to send clean funding and a clean funding bill to my desk that fully fund our great military, protecting our country should always be a bipartisan issue, just like today's legislation. we must work across party lines to give our heroic troops the equipment, resources and support that they have earned a thousand times over. together we will send a clear message to our allies, and a firm warning to our enemies and adversaries. america is strong, proud, determined and ready. and i might add, when we're completed, and it won't be that long, we will be stronger than ever before by a lot. so thank you to all of our friend in cong

two years ago the ndaa changed it to united states, canada, uk and australia.we need to add france and germany to that. we have to have an open market. we need to get rid of itar for allies and we have to have, you know, compete so we have the best capabilities. so i think, i know that john richardson thinks a lot about interoperating with our allies and how we can improve it. so it's simple to us because it's one of the ways in which we can remain, make the world continued be safe for democracy by working with our allies. [applause] >> we just wanted to thank mr. work, bob work, who's a friend of the institute for his accident and forthright remarks, we are presenting in this naval institute press book properly titled hell to pay. about the invasion of japan, which you brought up the first guided missiles and were we ready to take those attrition losses, and i think the answer is clear. so thank you, sir. we thank you for your time. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> okay, we're going to take a five-minute break, and this is the only break, five minutes. ro

used the legislation that was in the ndaa. we had stood up about 20 months ago or so, the reinvigorated army oversights council. he took that case that you're talking about, found the requirements process and 18 months later we got to the point we were delivering weapons. we've managed to turn a bad news story into a good news story. i think that type of process, leveraging the authorities we got from congress is the basis to which the army is heading with all the changes we plan to making to improve the acquisition process and make sure we don't see that again. >> sir, from the navy's perspective, you guys have been very helpful. we've been doing some piloting of reducing a number of critical performance parameters. you gave us the authority to try one where we only had two critical performance parameters. that simplified the solicitation. then we could work with industry, again getting to secretary wilson, a much shorter requirement and gave us a much broader look. that saved years from us going through the normal traditiona

the ndaa, the bill we passed, the president signed into law will be a big step in correctin the readiness shortfalls. i look forward to continue to work with him on this critical process. we have a committee that's already having hearings about the problems that we're having. we had one actually in the subcommittee hearing that i chair just this week. so we're busy correcting these problems. meanwhile back to our v.a. problems in oklahoma, we put two great new directors in the v.a. clinics and have a level of veteran care oklahoma is proud of. and only yesterday president trump signed the enhancing veterans act to ensure that we continue to give our veterans the best care. they deserve it and they're going to get it. at the same time we're going to restore and rebuild the military as our nation's number-one priority. our troops deserve it, and they're going to get it. with that, i yield the floor. mr. scott: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from south carolina. mr. scott: thank you, mr. president. this week we took an amazing step towards helping middle-class families, wo

army general milley took to heart what congress said, use the legislation that was contained in the ndaa. we had stood up about 20 months ago or so that reinvigorate army requirements oversight council. so he took that case you talking about, refined the process and 18 months later we got to the point where we were delivering weapons. we have managed to turn and bad news story i think into a good news story. i think that that the process leveraging with authorities we have from congress is the basis which he army is heading with regard to futures commit and all the changes we plan a making to prove the acquisition process and make sure we don't see that again. >> from the navy perspective because of been very helpful. we been doing some piloting of reducing critical performance parameters that give us authority to try when we only had to critical performers parameters. that's simplified the solicitation and then we could work with industry again getting to a much shorter requirement, give us a much broader look. that savior some us going through the normal traditional piece. the authorit

agreed on is, we have an ndaa defense number, we haven't agreed on all of those other bipartisan issuesyou are talking about. you have made a passionate case today that we should not hold the dreamer bill hostage until we agree on everything else, but you -- everything else you also stipulated is very important. why is it legitimate to hold our men and women in uniform hostage ? >> we are not holding our men and women in uniform hostage. you probably know that. nobody is doing that. and i don't appreciate that characterization. but i do want -- we had an agreement that said there would be parity. in the same way you meant exactly what you said when you to mr. an act of cruelty kuhl, i mean exactly what i am saying when i say my democratic friends are holding my national security funding hostage until they get the nondefense security bill and everybody at this table knows it, everybody in this chamber knows it, and it has been a practice in the seven years i have been here as we get the negotiating these deals. with anyean that disrespect. as you say, it is an intellectual issue, it is n