eporter: the ndaa sent to conference yesterday. when that comes back, the president has threatened to veto the confedderate provision that's -- confederate provision in there. support congressional override to get the ndaa passed? mr. mccarthy: i'm not sure what the president said there. think when the ndaa comes out it will pass and the president will sign it. yes, sir. the biden team wants o be briefed on the vaccine distribution. biden himself says that if they don't get -- coordinate with the administration, people in the top when it comes time to distribute -- would you say hy that if he doesn't know about it? reporter: should there be with the trump administration and the biden transition team about distributing the vaccine? mr. mccarthy: well, the first thing i think the biden team words do is take back the that they said earlier, especially kamala harris, to scare the american public about vaccine that's 95% effective. i think governor cuomo should do exact same thing. hen i listen to my own governor. i think they should al

the ndaa says the policies and the rules that go around that. ideally you need. at the minimum, you just need appropriations. so the authorization bill, for the most part, it tends to be a nonpartisan bill. it setting things like pay raises for the troops. .olicy issues a lot of mundane things about's reports that have to be delivered to congress before a weapon system can proceed. it sets privatization within the pentagon. for example, last years national , there a lot act of things in there. there are interesting issues that could potentially draw a veto or stall in congress and a lot of that stems from the fallout from president trump's decision to transfer funding from the department of defense in order to use for the construction of the border wall. --distant fallout from that in thehere is language defense authorization bill now that would call for a panel to review the name of military installations, largely army named after confederate generals and this is an area where president trump said he would veto the bill. guest: the military itself has come out a

the ndaa, if you look back over the years, there are many years that they have not been -- that the ndaa not been passed until january or february. they could delay the whole bill until there is a new president in the white house. if there are pacific -- specific provisions that president trump objects to. host: president trump made it a goal to draw down troops from afghanistan. is there money in the current budget for that, and how much has he done to draw down the troops there? guest: it's hard to tell how much they have drawn down because -- there is not a lot of transparency in terms of reporting over time how many troops have been stationed in afghanistan. it is hard to tell how many are coming out. is left.d what it appears the president is making moves to try to follow through in his campaign promise to bring down the troop numbers by the end of the year. i would note president biden -- president-elect biden is saying similar things, not exactly the same, but similar things about bringing troop numbers down in afghanistan. there's money in the 2021 budget request. fyn they reques

todd: the basic difference, the ndaa is an authorization bill. agencies have their own authorizations. it is a policy bill. it will set things, like rules on how money can be spent and how money can be transferred between accounts. reporting requirements before money can be spent. is theropriations bill bill that actually gives you funding. at the end of the day, we talk about the budget. it is the appropriations bill that sets the budget. kinda sets the policies and rules that go around that. at a minimum, you just need appropriations. and authorizations can come whenever they come. the authorization bill, for the most part, it tends to be a nonpartisan bill. pres. trump: thank you very much. thank you. beautiful out here this time of year. the past nine months, my administration has i

we've made plog and hopefully we will make progress in this year's ndaa that we are now negotiating in encouraging businesses to do with d.o.d. and small and mid-sized companies to bring innovation to the table and to help all of that to move at a greater rate of speed. but there is a lot more to be done. updating our aapproaches to things has to go beyond d.o.d. a story in the "wall street journal" said china is no longer leading the you when it comes to 5 delnch g it is running away with the game. a few weeks ago, d.o.d. proposed deas on other ways that we can deploy 5 delnchgep and utilize spectrum and you think the sky is about to fall in. national security is no longer br planes, tanks and ships being willing to pursue other shoes but make a huge differ in our country defending itself. number five. and that is have a lot of public discussion about new technologies and their applications for defense. n 2011, then speaker boehner asked me to do a committee. we were able to come together with a set of recommendations and we had the snowden the leaks, we had wikileaks and everybody th

alert them to potential risks that they may have been subjected to and maybe we can do that through an ndaa or a va bill, but it is certainly something that we should take place and they're all aware, it is expecting a lot when people are trying to survive today. thank you. i yield back, and her point is well received in questioning from the gentle lady from virginia, miss lauria. we did have records of letters from physicians who indicated that notification to the 40%, so to speak was not given, that they were not advised, that they should be alert to the possibility of -- of medical conditions arising from their service at k2. so i agree with the chair bm of the house arms services committee and we should make it official and we should try to expedite it in the next available legislative vehicle and i welcome her participation in that, and i'm happy to work with her. i am told that we have mr. gosar back online, so i'd like to recognize the gentleman from arizona for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman and sorry we had a failure with the audio. thank you for calling this hearing and

. -- [inaudible] and the house version of t fy '21 ndaa. we recognize the critical portance of the program for s. government operations in afghanistan and also for fure operations whereoung troops like i was i going to have to convince allies overseas to trust us enough to put the lights on the line to support us. so can you just tell us why the ogram is so critical in your eyes and the effect that the success ofhe program in afghanistan will have on future national security operations overseas? >> i think that is exactly right, congressman. as i noted there is a backlog of some 18,00 cases in afghanistan. the sad reality is probably today more interprets and their family members are getting killed in afghanistan because of their service to us that are getting special immigrant visas to make good on our pledge to them that we would take care of them. you are quite right to assess implications far beyond the borders of afghanistan. the world is watching. the nature of war has changed. the wars of the future going to look like we haveot to ha

. -- [inaudible] and the house version of the fy '21 ndaa. we recognize the critical impoance of the program for u.s.overnment operations in afghanistan and also for futur operations where you troops like i was i going to have to convince allies overseas to trust us enough to put the lights on the line to support us. so can you just tell us why the progm is so critical in your eyes and the effect that the success of therogram in afghanistan will have on fure national security operations overseas? >> i think that is exactly right, congressman. as i noted there is a backlogf some 18,00 cases in afghanistan. the sad reality is probably today more interpretersnd their family members are getting killed in afghanistan because of their service to us that are getting special immigrant visas to mak good on our pledge to them that we would take caref them. you are quite right to assess implications far beyond the borders of afghanistan. the world is watching. the nature of war has changed. the wars of theuture going to look like we have got to have peo

what is important today not only this resolution is the conference committee that i sit on for the ndaa which contains the provision that i wrote and introduced to this house as the saudi nuclear nonproliferation act to say that we will not enter into agreements for nuclear cooperation with countries that refuse to sign the additional protocol. as we look forward to a new administration, we need to re-enter the jcpoa with iran and make sure iran never develops a nuclear weapon. we have to prevent saudi arabia from developing a nuclear weapon. and we have to roll back the north korean program. there is much for us to do in nonproliferation, and there is no more work -- there is no work more important for our committee. since i have some additional time, i'd like to use it to express my views on the other important legislation that the foreign affairs committee is bringing to this house today. the first is the tropical forest and coral reef conservation re-authorization act of 2022 introduced by mr. chabot for which i serve as the lead democrat. this is an important debt for nature progra

and it needs toe in the ndaa. look, as we come near this week -- heren week back to washington, d.c., to deal with next year's funding package and want to step back for a second andalkbout really what's the most important thing in this body, and that's relationships. now, as a united states senator, we have relationships with the people that elects and that we work for. some of those relationships are outstanding. some maybe not so outstanding. we also have relationships with the people who work for us. and once again some of those relationships are outstanding, some of them could use a little work. today i get to talk about somebody whos retiring from my office that has had an outsnding relationship with everybody in m office, which is a feat that not lot of folks are able do. she is retiring. she is my scheduler, and her name is tricia bicford-macafel. i would said that trisha i not hopefully she's watching on c-span. the reason she's not here is because of covid. my wife is not here today, and my wife dear lay

this year would make the 60th consecutive year congress will have passed an ndaa. this is no time to break that streak and leave our forces in the lurch. let's get this done and pass a conference report through both chambers this year. now, on another matter, while our committees are working, the full senate is keeping busy with one of the core constitutional responsibilities we have. continuing to confirm well-qualified men and women to lifetime toiments to the term -- appointments to the federal judiciary. we voted to advance the nomination of kristi haskins johnson, the current solicitor general of mississippi with multiple impressive clerkships under her belt to serve as a district judge for the southern district of mississippi. she'll make history as the first woman to join the bench in that district. this is just the first of several nominations we'll consider this week. we'll also vote on benjamin beason, a kentuckian who has been nominated to be a district judge for the western district of kentucky. he's now outstanding choice by president trump. he receive

when the ndaa makes its way to the president's desk, it will mark the 60th consecutive year in which congress has passed such bipartisan legislation to fund and supply and equip our nation's military. i appreciate the strong bipartisan support of chairman inhofe on the armed services committee and ranking member reed and i'm eager for this legislation to come to the floor for a final vote. but the next step is to secure funding for the prals to incentivize -- programs to incentize semiconductor manufacturing. we have been working with secretary mnuchin, secretary ross, secretary pompeo who worked with us to try to close the gap and i've enjoyed working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to ensure that we provide full funding for this legislation, but we're not there yet. this is the key to our long-term national security and economic competitiveness. it is my top priority in the coming weeks as the senate perhaps to consider appropriations bills. a secure semiconductor supply chain will strengthen our national security and our economy will reap countless benefits by bringing

i expect the fiscal year 21 ndaa will take this long overdue step and result in s-400 sanctions on turkey. i would also urge the incoming biden administration to reassert american leadership in the region. the united states must join with europe in solidarity against turkey's violations of the sovereignty of greece and cypress when destabilize the mediterranean region. sanctions against those conducting illegal exploration activities on behalf of turkey would be a strong show of support for our european allies, not to mention for the rule of law. indeed i have every confidence that president-elect biden and his team will live up to america's responsibilities on the world stage by actually engaging on all of these issues. and through the orchlts s.c.e. group process, although it appears to be on life support we must invigorate it with senior-level engagement. we must send a clear message -- message that violence as a means to solve the conflict will not succeed. and pressure on armenia from its eastern and western borders will not be tolerated. i'd like to close with this. above the road b