Rep. Chip Roy On NDAA

Rep. Chip Roy released the following statement Friday regarding his vote on the NDAA:

"Today the House voted on passage of the FY20 National Defense Authorization Act, a bill which authorizes approximately $735 billion in spending for the Department of Defense and related agencies for the next year. Regrettably, the Democrats hijacked what has traditionally been a bipartisan piece of legislation to push their own agenda, putting controversial, politically-charged issues before the needs of men and women in uniform and our nation's defenses.

This bill included detrimental provisions that would harm our nation, like allowing suspected terrorists and war-time prisoners to be transferred out of the Guantanamo Bay detention center; prohibiting our ability to defend our nation by handicapping our own nuclear weapons development; decreasing funding for needed weapons platforms; supporting protectionist procurement policies for non-defense articles; and adopting amendments on topics including border security and amnesty, contraception, gender-equality, and needless environmental protectionism.

A few amendments I did support were included in the bill on the House floor. These include:

• Biggs (R-AZ), Roy (R-TX) amdt #71 - Requires the Secretary of Defense to submit a report to Congress on annual defense spending by ally and partner countries
• Biggs (R-AZ), Roy (R-TX), Steube (R-FL) amdt #72 - Expresses a sense of Congress about the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship
• Kinzinger Amdt #225 – an amendment to protect the RC26B manned intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platform until a plan has been presented on how to provide the needed manned or unmanned ISR mission support in the event the platform were divested from. This is important as Texas uses this important system along our southwestern border for interdiction and other operations.
• Cuellar Amdt #119 - Requests an independent assessment of the United States' funding and resources available to the Department of Defense, the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development, for use in the Western Hemisphere. The assessment will also focus on investments made by China, Iran, and Russia in the Western Hemisphere.
• Norman (R-SC), Roy (R-TX) amdt #297 - Authorizes a public-private pilot program to train and place veterans as cybersecurity personnel with the DoD.
• Banks (R-IN), Roy (R-TX), et al. amdt #63 - Requires the Department of Defense, Coast Guard, and the Department of Veterans Affairs to develop jointly a comprehensive enterprise interoperability strategy sufficient for seamless health care with TRICARE providers and community care providers under the MISSION Act.

I look forward to this bill being conferenced with the Senate-passed NDAA and hope a better version comes before me again for a vote. I will continue to fight for TX-21 and our men and women in uniform. They deserve nothing but our best, and sadly Washington often gets in the way of that."

Robert Donachie | Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX)
1319 Longworth House Office Building | Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4236 | (202) 225-8628 (f)