354, h. R. 6395, a bill to authorize appropriations for 2021 for military activities of the department of military d for construction to prescribe military personnel strength for for other year and purposes. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to House Resolution 053, in lieu of the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the committee on the services printed in bill, an amendment in the nature of a substitute consisting of rules committee is adopted and the bill, as amended, is considered as read. Debatable for one hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and the ng minority member of committee on Armed Services. The gentleman from washington, smith, and the gentleman from texas, mr. Thornberry, each minutes. Rol 30 the chair recognizes the gentleman from washington. Mr. Smith mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and and to heir remarks include extraneous material on h. R. 6395. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Smith mr. Speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Smith thank you. The ve before us today National Defense authorizing act 2021. Scal year its an important piece of legislation that we have done every year for 59 consecutive years. This year. For 60 it is incredibly important that the United States congress, the and the senate exercise our oversight over the and our t of Defense NationalSecurity Budget and priorities, and this bill reflects that. Start by thanking a lot of people who have done an enormous amount of work to make this possible. Started in committee a couple of weeks ago. E had over 650 amendments submitted to the original mark of the chairman and the subcommittee marks. Processed those amendments and actually adopted 475 committee. In i want to thank our staff more than i possibly can for the amount of work they did to go through all of those amendments, to work with various to work with interested parties to get us to that product. I am very pleased we were able that done and pass the bill out of the Armed Services unanimously. 560. With broad support. I want at this point thank the Ranking Member of the committee, mr. Thornberry, for his incredible leadership during this process. Hes been a terrific partner, when he was chairman of the committee and now that hes the Ranking Member of the committee. Of you know, this will be is last ndaa since hes retiring from congress, and i ust want to command his commend his great work and great leadership. I want to emphasize the point i made in many, many times. The committee should be an example of congress. Happen by accident. It happens by leadership. Hen mr. Thornberry became chairman of the committee and i mac anking member, understood the priority of getting the bill done and working in a bipartisan way to do that. Because of that leadership, that been set for the committee and weve been able to continue to accomplish that. Thank the rules committee. That is not an easy job in the best of times. Know, these are not the best of times. To amendments were submitted be added to this bill this year. The rules committee had to sift through and process all of those amendments to produce before you the rule that we all just approved today. Doing their staff for that incredible work and do want to pause just one moment to the staff they did in light of covid19. We all know that things cannot they normally are. We had to make adjustments. The staff in particular had to adjustments. Just getting our Committee Hearing room set up so we could socially e a distancing markup took an normous amount of time and technological knowhow. The staff did a fabulous job to get to this point. Accident were here. A lot of work went to get us to the moment to have what i think product. Ellent again, we cant forget the central premise behind this roduct and that is to support our National Security policy and to make sure that the men and military,serve in our who we assign with the task of implementing that policy have and training and equipment that they need to perform whatever tasks we ask do. To we can and should have a robust those jobs what should be, what our National Security priorities are, what we do, d fund, what we should but something we should never disagree on is the idea whatever we decide, the troops, the men and women who are charged with implementing it are well kwimd well equipped, protected, supported in carrying mission. Thats what we attempt to do. This years bill had agreement from last years budget on our top line budget of 741 billion. And i think that was a good that we reached on the defense and nondefense discretionary budget. I ill say going forward, think this is one of the greatest challenges that we are going to face. E had a difficult budget environment before covid19. Its even more difficult now. Going to have to make some very difficult choices in to decade ahead about what fund. Not just to meet our National Security priorities but to meet all of our priorities within budget context. I do want to thank the secretary his fense, mark esper, for leadership in this regard. The pentagon has gone to great bottomup do a review, to really take a hard look where theyre spending find savings sometimes in the tens of billions of dollars. That type of effort is going to forwardbe ongoing going if we are going to have a rational National Security policy. A number t to commend of members in our committee who have worked to focus on this years bill. I believe in addition to the covid19 challenge that we face, a reckoning that we have as country for the historic racism, discrimination, and bigotry that with is restled enormously important we address that. Societiwide. Within the department of defense, there are issues to work on there as well. Tune of 17 e million aggressive efforts to increase the relationship between the department of historical black colleges and universities to create and grow the pipeline of department of the defense. Jobs both civilian and active duty. Now created a chair of diversity within d. O. D. Whose to look and make sure that we are in fact hiring and way that people in a is equitable. And we have also set aside a to ial Inspector General examine that question and also, thanks to the leadership of and essman Anthony Brown jackie speier, amongst others, we are looking how the ucmj is implemented. Being implemented in a way thats fair and unbiased . These are all efforts to create we need sity that within our armed forces and the iversity we need within our society. Overall, i am very, very pleased with this product, and more than pleased with the people who worked together to put it together. Bipartisan way. Diversed opinions. Not just republican and democrat, but within each party, as mr. Thornberry will attest, we are not the same within our own parties. Even with that diversity, we and able to Work Together produce what i think is an excellent product, that we should all be proud to support. Preb. Hat i with that i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from washington reserves. He gentleman from texas, mr. Thornberry, is recognized. Mr. Thornberry thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield myself three minutes. The peaker pro tempore gentleman is recognized. Mr. Thornberry mr. Speaker, first, i want to say, like all y colleagues, i mourn the passing of john lewis, and as someone said this weekend, he a consequential life and i would add one that we all admire. On the bill before us im grateful for the kind words of chairman smith as well as the generous amendment he offered in committee related to the name of this bill. And also the very generous response of all members on both sides of the aisle. Ill confess, mr. Speaker, that all of this naming business makes me a little uncomfortable because this bill is not about any of us, its about the men and women who serve our nation and their families and american National Security. As the chairman points out thats the focus of this bill for 59 straight years. And with his leadership, the leadership of senator reed and senator inhofe im sure it will be number 60. Obviously i do not agree with everything in the bill but on balance its a good bill and in some particulars its a very good bill. I want to highlight the family resiliency and readiness provisions. Thanks to good work from mr. Kelly and ms. Speier i want to highlight a number of cyber and Artificial Intelligence provisions thanks to the good work of mr. Langevin, ms. Stefanik, mr. Gallagher who chaired one of the committees we set up. A number of provisions in this bill strengthen relationships with partners and allies. And among others who have worked on this, mr. Gallego, mr. Crow, ms. Cheney, mr. Turner, there is a lot of very good substance in this bill. Bringing it all together i want to credit the leadership of the chairman. Not only for assembling a bill of good substance, for passing it by a vote of 560, and doing so in a very, very challenging time. I join him in applauding the staff not just the substance but the logistics, all that was required to bring this bill to us. Finally, mr. Speaker, i cant help but note whenever there is a crisis in this country we turn to the military. And we have seen that several times just within the past few months. And so the thrust of this bill is to say, ok, if we are going to turn to the military in times of crisis, then we need to support them with the best training, best equipment, the best support of all kinds that we can provide because they are there for us. We need to be there for them. That is the thrust of this bill this year as it has been in the past and i believe it certainly deserves members support as we move forward. I reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from texas reserves. The gentleman from washington. Mr. Smith im pleased to yield 3. 5 minutes to the gentleman from rhode island, mr. Langevin. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from rhode island is recognized. Mr. Langevin i thank the gentleman for yielding. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I rise today in strong support of h. R. 6395, the National Defense authorization act for fiscal year 2021. I want to begin by congratulating chairman smith and Ranking Member thornberry for the strong bipartisan bill which was unanimously passed by the committee 560. Im particularly pleased with the provisions in our intelligence and emerging threats and capabilities portion of the bill. My subcommittees provisions reflect key National Security interests and critical defense oversight areas including intelligence, cyber, science, and technology, and special Operations Forces. I want to thank Ranking Member stefanik for her bipartisan cooperation. And i want to thank the other members of the subcommittee for the extraordinary input that made this mark so strong. Sound collaboration is what sets this committee apart as we maintain the now 60year tradition of passing an annual Defense Authorization bill to support members of the military and provide for our National Security. The Ranking Member, the vice chair, mr. Crow, and my ietc colleagues exemplify this spirit. Id also like to thank the staff who without their input and work this would not be possible. Committee staff shannon, josh, jessica, best, eric, jason, and caroline and my military legislative assistant, caroline and fellows matt and allison were instrumental in its development. And my legislative director at n. I. C. Our subcommittee mark aligns intelligence and security cape inters to the National Defense strategy. Im proud it incorporates recommendations from two commissions comprising some of our nations most forward thinking defend experts. The National Security commission on Artificial Intelligence has worked to lay the foundation for the countrys work force ethics and security requirements as Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence tools become more prevalent. The cyber spares commission which i had the pleasure to serve on with my colleague, congressman gallagher, has provided strategy vision of cyber deterrence and it includes 20 recommendations to implement it. This bill enriches the department of defense science and technology ecocies tefment we had over we added over 600 million in science and Technology Funding to confront rising science powers. We restore 135 million to the reduction account fixing a devastateling cut in the devastating cut in the president s budget and 1 billion in the pandemic preparedness. Great competition is also a race for talent. This bill diversifies the departments work force and emphasizes collaboration with historically black colleges and universities and minority institutions. It will also protect foreign students at our Great University from being deported. It also ensures special Operations Forces remain the most talented, professional, agile and ready for posture at the high end commissions. The bill funds the navys number one procurement priority, the columbia class submarine and restores funding for two virginia class coats one of which was cut by the president. I know what amazing capabilities these submarines provide because they are built in my district in rhode island by the hardworking men and women of electric boat. On proud to work jim these provisions. This bill demonstrates our commitment to National Security while increasing oversight and reducing redundancy to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent efficiently and effectively. I urge my colleagues to support it. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from washington reserves. The gentleman from texas. Million thornberry im pleased to yield three minutes to the Ranking Member of the subcommittee on strategy forces, mr. Turner. Strategic forces, mr. Turner. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from ohio is recognized. Mr. Turner i want to join Ranking Member thornberry in noting the passing of john lewis. His heroism and eloquence challenged us and he will be sorely missed. I also want to begin by thank our chairman, adam smith. Our chairman reached out to the other side and said he wanted to do a bipartisan bill. But that sounds easy but in this environment it is not. It is highly substantive. It takes negotiation. It takes a lot more work than a partisan bill does. He achieved that with a unanimous vote coming out of committee. That takes compromise, but this bill does not compromise ought all for National Security. Id like to recognize our Ranking Member who will be retiring, i served with him for 18 years. I appreciated his mentorship. And im glad this bill bears his name in honor of his time here. This bill also authorizes the administrations full request for the National Nuclear security administration. These funds are crid cat critical our Nuclear Weapons enterprise remains safe, secure, and effective. We put off this investment too long. We do not have any additional time. Our Nuclear Forces are at work every day. They stand as a silent testament to deter our adversaries and support our allies. Without our nuclear deforces, the world would be less safe. This bill fully funds the ground base deterrence of the minuteman 3. The bill also provides progress for space force and provides stability for the National Security space launch program. And makes investments in Missile Defense by funding two of the Missile Defense agents highest priorities, including the 10 sm 3 block 2a. The ndaa will provide support to the people that defend our country. Our troops are receiving a 3 pay raise for the second year in a row. This bill expands the rights of men and women in uniform and their families residing in military housing, it provides more oversight over the private companies responsible for maintaining the health and safety of these homes. This bill also provides remarkable strides in military justice over the justice. This bill also provides protection for Sexual Assault victims. They are getting more rights on appeal, greater access to court records, and adigal protection for retaliatory punishment. I want to thank congressman brown for his work on advancing diversity and equality in our Service Member ranks. I was proud to work with congressman brown to advance concrete steps to promote diversity. This years ndaa creates the position of chief diversity officer for d. O. D. And establishes a diversity and inclusion advisory council, and creates more Scholarship Opportunities in historically black colleges. The ndaa enhances our National Security and improves the lives of our Service Members. I urge all my colleagues to support it. Any cuts in funding to this bill would severely weaken our nation at a time when we are facing some of our clearest threats. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from washington.