the ndaa to the floor. and yet the senate majority leader doesn't want to do that. not surprising, that's the tradition of national democrats, weakening our military, not taking it seriously, not a priority. but that's not what the american people want, madam president. we need the ndaa to the floor now during these dangerous times, and my colleagues and i, i'm glad to be with all of them on the floor -- by the way, i'm pretty sure there will be some democrat senators calling for this, too. they're not doing it right now, but we need it on the floor today, and i'm honored to be here with so many republican senators making same call. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. scott: madam president, we shouldn't be here giving speeches about the national defense authorization act. we should be here on the senate floor voting on the national defense authorization act. once again, as he has done year after year since i've been here, majority leader chuck schumer is refusing to adva

this year will be the 62nd time that the ndaa has been signed into law, 62 times. i am proud to have a hand in crafting the last 28 years of that bill. the defense authorization bill ensures that our servicemen and women have the training and equipment and other resources they need to defend america, here and on the road. it also ensures that the families of the men and women who serve are taken care of. some elected leaders criticize our military spending, but they need to know that our greatest expense in the military is taking care of our troops and building schools for some of the young people and how important that is. why does it cost more for us to do it than any other country, the communist countries? it does because we do actually take care of our people. while growing threats from china, russia, iran and others around the world, it is more important now than ever that our troops have what they need to counter this aggression. ronald reagan used to say, "we maintain the peace through our strength," and that continues to be true today. after all these years

congress has of course passed the ndaa for the past 53 consecutive years. it's a must-pass piece of legislation and it's time to build on that record particularly at a time, the most dangerous time i think our country and the world has seen since world war ii. the threats are everywhere, it seems. i want to commend chairman jack reed and ranking member roger wicker and our colleagues on the armed services committee for doing their job and advancing the 64th annual ndaa last month. this bill ultimately passed the committee on a bipartisan vote of 22-3. that strong bipartisan vote includes provisions offered by members of course on both sides of the aisle. the ndaa, the defense authorization bill, was absolutely essential to america's defense. our military readiness, and the safety and well-being of our troops and our military families. at a time when america's position on the world stage is being tested by all of our adversaries around the world, a strong defense authorization bill could not be more important. it should be signed into law before congress fun

as we do that, that provides contracts as well and fy 24 ndaa , we had six weapons to do multiyear procurement. once you get consistency, you have trust with the defense industrial base and they know how much work force they need, how much facilities they need and how much of the supply chain they need. that drives trust. increases trust, drive down costs and them delivery times so we can get the capabilities in the hands of fighters faster. we have the capacity but we have to make the commitment. >> do you think the nation and the industrial base needs to be on a war footing right now? >> i see the industrial base has been helpful to do this. some may not realize that much of the money is going into the defense industrial base to provide capabilities that not only help ukraine, israel, taiwan, it helps us as well. it is important that we continue consistent funding to bring in that capability. >> former president trump has said he can negotiate the end of the war in 24 hours. is that possible? >> if he can get it done in 24 hours, that would be great. it stops the conflict. then we get back t

as the ndaa commission is out, we have a lot of work to do and not much time to do it. the prc military is already leaving little doubt about beijing's ability to use hard power against its neighbors and test american power and western resolve. last month the prc naval forces launched a violent confrontation in disputed waters that china hopes to turn into a chinese lake. the philippines, america's long-time treaty ally has maintained a lawful presence in an area just 100 miles off their coast known as the second thomas shoal for decades. the sailors had a ship on the shoal and they count on regular shipments of supplies, but in recent months these shipments have come under brazen attack. chinese forces have rammed philippine resupply vessels, harassed them with water cannons, injured philippine sailors, destroyed their navigation equipment, towed them out to sea and left them for dead. the most acute aggression thankfully seems to have subsided for the moment but a fundamental reality still remains. just as russia is using force to redraw european borders and reassert

of defense supports a reauthorization of the dpa and believes it needs to happen this year in the ndaa or other means, rather than risking waiting until 2025. why is that? because in addition to timely, consistent appropriations and multiyear procurement authority, supporting the defense production act may be one of the most important actions that congress can take to ensure that that u.s. industrial base is ready to preserve our military advantage and support the war fighter. i would also like to take this opportunity to thank congress for expanding the definition of domestic source and the defense production act to include australia and the united kingdom. this allows us to come in addition to working with canada, to support and work with our allies and partners to strengthen our own industrial base, as well. dod's primary aim in the use of the defense production act is to increase the readiness and resilience of the defense industrial base in support of critical needs and the war fighter point since congress enacted the dpa in 1950, the executive branch has invoked dpa authorities t

support a five-year reauthorization him believe the rasterization needs to happen this year in the ndaa or rather than risk a lapse of authority by waiting until 2025. why is that? in addition to time the consistent appropriations and multiyear procurement authorities supporting the defense production act may be one of the most important actions to ensure the u.s. industrial base is ready to preserve their military advantage in support of the warfighters. i'd also like to take this opportunity to thank congress for expanding the definition of domestic through the defense production act to include the australia and the united kingdom which allows us to addition to working with candidates is support and work with our allies to strengthen our own industrial base as well. today's primary aim in the use of the defense production act doesn't increase the readiness and resigned to the defense industrial base in support off critical needs for the warfighter. since congress enacted the d.c. in 1950 the executive branch has invoked dpa authority to manage the nation's defense relation capacity cr

year, which we sort of work back and forth with congress in a very respectful way to come up with ndaa resolution that limited our ability to do that human intelligence collection. the last thing i would say is what i said earlier, which is a -- is we are taking those resources, taking that human intelligence focus and focusing it on the border now. so most of that work is going to be, you know, special interest migrants who were detained on the border working with our cbp colleagues trying to get information about the threat relating to the border. >> thank you, undersecretary, and i'm glad you brought up products. i think there are a number of questions via letters and other correspondence that we have two -- we have to dhs and ina and just want to make sure that the department is tracking those but not only that, that in a timely manner that you will commit to responding to those. >> i will look into whatever is pending, sir. thank you. >> thank you. what is your biggest concern right now? what's the priority for ina to keep the country safe in the threat environment that we previou

it should have been the week the democratic leader brought the ndaa up for senate consideration. it could have been a great week to lead. fortunately, the most successful military alliance in history has had some strong leadership in brussels, with secretary-general ja janes -- jans stoltenberg. i'm thankful for his work on urgent and long-term challenges facing the alliance, and for his deep devotion to the cause of collective defense. the secretary-general took office months, just months after russia launched its unprovoked invasion of ukraine back in 2014. after a pivotal decade, he will leave the alliance with renewed clarity and resolve to face even graver russian aggression and linked authoritarian threats all around the world. for ten years, he's worked relentlessly to expand allies' focus to include serious challenges emanating from beyond n nato's borders. recognizing the links between major threats to global security, he's improved the alliance engagement with critical indo-pacific nations, like japan, south korea, and australia. just yesterday he led allies in making c

king on a bill that we introduced that we were able to get some of those important factors into the ndaa so that we can address them and hopefully continue to grow what we need and meet those needs. quickly. ambassador, based on the commission's work, what do you think are the biggest barriers that we are going to face as a country to achieving that multiple theater force construct? and representative, i'd like to hear your opinion on that, as well. amb. edelman: senator fischer, to your question, the force right now is too small and so we have to grow the force and that's in the face of the recruiting challenges that we've highlighted in the report that the army in particular, but also the navy and the air force, have faced. senator fischer: i am going to interrupt you. why is it too small? can you explain in this setting the threats that we are facing when we look at the adversaries we face and how that has changed , over the last decade? amb. edelman: it's too small in part because the department was sizing itself for one conflict. but if you have to be present in three theaters, as w

her colleagues on the armed services committee reported that ndaa by an overwhelming bipartisan votever a month ago. so far, democratic leaders haven't come close to putting this must pass author as i -- authorizing legislation out her on the floor. of course the national security priorities won't fund themselves either. the senate has the appropriations bill or any other government funding for that matter. but it least the fiscal 25 appropriations have been written for the farm bill that supposed to help americans growers and producers succeed doesn't even exist yet. apparently it's just a tringal and chair stabenow's eye. the american people sent us here to do a job and they can't help the fact that the senate majority with. the presiding officer: without objection. senate proceed to legislative session and be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following senate

chairman mccaul and i had an amendment to that effect but, unfortunately, it did make it into the ndaare's an intramural debate in the administratn between treasury and the white house over the marime insurance sanctions. i i would like to see administration move on both maritime insurance sanctions and the authority to strike russian energy infrastructure. they would have congress support. >> it sounds like you think administration hasn't been aggressive enough on both sides on the military and economic set. >> president biden's last use of an enormous effective in rowling and maintaining western unity. not just question but western plus in support of ukraine. at this point i would have been calibrate more aggressively. they are overly indexing to three of risk about putin's threat mongering to nato territory and i'd investing to the risk of first kyiv and then what? that to me is true demena as question we have to be worried abt. >> i wanted to turn did indo-pacific a bit because you're a memr of of the china select committee in the house. we seen the last two new summits actuallyhe

we try to do this in the ndaa, all the way around. i've been told by bureaucrats you know what, tough luck. you have to more money and yet again included. now all of a sudden i find these poor people, these native americans in northwestern arizona, the southeastern nevada folks don't have any compensation hospitals. i've got some problems with it. i want this money to be appropriate because you can talk about the administration and rules and regulations, but the other part of wasting money is the contractor is not doing their job. is it the supervision of this, the army corps of engineers is a adequate? i don't know but we have to have answers. because we have one more chance at this. the rest of these people are not going to be around, and is meager, folks. you have to show you live in his area for an amount of time just to be able to get $35,000. i find this radical injustice in that regard, so i would like, i got a lot of other things. this is very important to me here so i would love to have your folks pushing this right away beca

however, fepa text that was enacted last year in the ndaa had several flaws. first, the law was added to the domestic bribery statute in title 18. these inconsistencies may prevent the fepa and domestic bribery statute from operating in the way that congress intended. second there were inconsistencies between the language of the fcpa and fepa. because these statutes are intended to be complementary, parts of it addressing the same problem, we need to harmonize. this technical and conforming change has been brought to the committee's attention. we stand for it and reviewed it and we hope all will vote on this. i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. nadler: i yield myself such time as i may consume. mr. speaker, i rise in strong support of s.4548 last year we enacted the foreign extortion h.r. act landmark that would combat hypocrisy. people is the first extension of our antibribery and anticorruption laws in 50 years. this provides a useful tool to combat corruption and stop it at its source wh