Mr. Inhofe for the next week, the senate is going to be debating what i consider to be and i think most people consider to be the most important bill of the year, the National Defense authorization act. Its an act that we passed and have passed every year for 60 years. In just a few days, the American Families across the country will be celebrating the 4th of july, independence day, the day that honors our blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Not all countries share these values. In fact, they reject them. China and russia would rather have an authoritarian world, one where democracy doesnt exist, where the rest of the world yields to them. According to the National Defense strategy, this is the document that i refer to all the time because this was put together a few years ago. Actually 12 really expert democrats and 12 expert republicans came into an agreement on what our defense should look like in the future. And so they said at that time, they said that china and russia in this book are our greatest threat right now. They are building up their militaries, expanding their influence around the world. Fiscal year 2021 National Defense authorization act is about sending a message to china and russia. It says there is no way you can defeat us, so dont try. Thats a pretty blunt message. We couldnt have sent that message two years ago. We have been building up were still not where we should be. We know the way that we preserve peace is by demonstrating our strength. We have the best military in the world, and our enemies need to know that, but we cant rest on our laurels. We have got to implement the National Defense strategy because our comparative military advantage is at risk right now. China and russia are actually catching up and surpassed us in some areas. Heres one big reason. That is that china and russia have invested in their military. Now, this is a shocker. This is a shocker when you talk to people because they dont expect it. I learned many years ago at least i believed that we had the best of everything. This is ever since world war ii. It was true for a long period of time. But they have increased their military spending in china during the period of time between 2009 and 2018 by 83 . Thats remarkable. Russia has grown its budget by 35 . Now, during that same period of time from 2010 to 2015, for that fiveyear period during the obama administration, we reduced our military by 25 . Think about that. China increased theirs by 83 . We reduced ours by 25 during that same time period. And dont forget, these countries willfully mislead on many things including the actual size of their defense budget. Russia is almost three times larger than most people think it is. They look at it and think well, ours is larger than theirs. Its just we dont get accurate information, and we know what the threats that are out there. Now, because of these investments, china and russia have grown not just the size of their military but the capabilities as well. Last october, china paraded a hypersonic weapon. I remember that so well because that was live on tv. We saw it. I saw it on television. Hypersonic, thats a state of the art. Both offense and defense. And they had they had it up there. Some people said they were maybe faking it. But no, i believe they had it. It was in a parade. They showed they had something that we dont even have. We dont have it yet. Their investments arent restricted by their borders. I have seen their buildup in action across the world. One prime example china recently built its First Overseas Military base. It was in djibouti. Now, prior to this time in djibouti and throughout africa, there was nothing there were a lot of chinese presence but not a military operation. In fact, historically, the military operations from china have always started were evident in their own city limits. I mean, this is not in djibouti, not in northern africa. It was a major in fact, i actually flew over it, the area. It was supposed to be a restricted area. So there is china over there in africa where they have never been before in djibouti and not just djibouti but all the way into southern tanzania. That wasnt going on before. Now we see china and russia grow more an tag particular and aggressive. China in particular has used the pandemic to lash out in every direction. They antagonized and harassed the taiwanese, the vietnamese, the vessels in the South China Sea and used every tool that they could do to harass them. What theyre doing in the South China Sea, and i did witness this, they did something most people dont know is going on in china, is actual little built seven islands. When you see what they have on these, they dont hide it. Its as if theyre preparing for world war iii. We saw 20 indian soldiers, theyre dead, killed by what are essentially baseball bats with spikes where the chinese conducted a military incursion in territory claimed by china. That just happened. I called and talked to their ambassador and gave them our condolences, but thats what china is capable of doing. Meanwhile russia continues to crop up the murderous assad regime. Putin sent mercenaries to libya and throughout africa. Both countries have been supporting the corrupt maduro regime in venezuela. Weve seen warning signs of this for at least a decade, but meanwhile the Previous Administration let our military take advantage and actually rode. For eight years we had a president where the military was not a top priority. I respected him because he had other areas where he, that he thought were more significant, and of course he was president of the united states, and he did it. So we went down by 25 between the fiveyear period of 2010 and 2015. At the same time russia was increasing by 35 , we were reducing 25 . They were increasing. China increasing by 83 . Defending america wasnt his top priority, but he was honest about it, and we learned that areas that were falling behind. Now weve started turning behind. Now we have a president whose priority is keeping American Families secure, and over the past few years we began rebuilding our military, thanks to president trump, the guy everybody criticizes. Were restoring our military might with new planes, ships, new weapons be. What were doing, as an example, fort sill is in my state of oklahoma. Right now were outranged and outgunned by russia and china. Fort sill is leading the armys modernization efforts on the longrange precision fire to restore our combat advantage. Thats whats happening all over the country too. So were pulling out of this thing. Restoring our might is important, but its not the only thing that matters. Weve got to make sure that the planes and the ships and the weapons are in the right places at the right time. And thats what the ndaa does. Thats what were talking about right now. The ndaa, as i stated before, i think its the most significant bill that we have all year round, and its actually, this will be the 60th year. And it makes sure that we have got a credible military deterrent that signals to any potential adversaries that they dont stand a chance. Thats what were in the process of doing. Thats what this bill is all about. We introduced and started talking about it yesterday, and we probably should have this thing prior to the 4th of july recess, we should have it passed, although that may be a little bit ambitious. So we are implementing the National Defense strategy. Thats this book that was, that were all so proud of. Bipartisan, its saying what we need to do to defend america. This document is one that we are following to the letter right now. Its our road map. The bill establishes the pacific deterrent initiative. Thats kind of patterned after the European Deterrent Initiative which focuses resources on the indopacific addressing key military capabilities in gatt and thats the area were concentrating on right now, and thats what our document says we should be doing and doing it with the Defense Authorization bill. The bill assures we have a combat credible forward posture and helps us develop the field and joint capabilities needed to take on the conflicts envisioned by this n. D. S. Report. We push back on chinas russia and russias attempt to expand their influence by building new alliances and partnerships and strengthening existing ones. Theyre busy. Theyre out there. We protect against intrusion from china and russia in space and beyond. Thats what we have in the bill. Thats what were envisioning well be able to do. We safeguard proprietary technology and intellectual property from being infiltrated by the government of china. We also reduce our reliance on Foreign Countries like china as a source for a variety of materials and technologies, including some of the microelectronics and rare earth men rals that also minerals and also medical devices. Last but not least, we accelerate investment in research and development into technology that will help us catch up with china and russia. Hypersonic weapons, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and more. Were not leading in all areas. As most people in america think we are, but were making such great progress. Our Defense Authorization bill last year put us way ahead of where we were before and this bill does the same thing. The bill sends a message, a strong message to china and russia and anyone else who would try it, we know what youre up to. We know how to stop you. You simply cant win against us. So i encourage my colleagues to put in, to, first of all, get all of their amendments in. Were trying to get our amendments all in by friday. If we can do that, we will be able to probably get this thing done possibly even by a week from today. So weve been working on it all year long, and this is one of the bills that we work on all year long, and we dont, we have a whole team working. Liz king and john bonzo, the republican, is the staff director, and liz, the Democrat Group working with my partner in this, we have worked very well together, and we should have this bill done and ready to take out. Of course lets keep in mind what we want to accomplish. We want to put our country ahead of china and russia and get us out of this problem area that we have, an area where people, our allies believe theyre preparing for world war iii. Thats what the bill is all about. Hopefully well get this thing done and have the necessary ingredients in there. This should be the year that we actually go ahead of china and russia. We want to make it happen, and this is the only way to do it. With that,