JUST IN: House Republicans Take Victory Lap After Passage Of NDAA, Overcoming Democratic Opposition

foreign [Laughter] first of all thank you for coming I'm sorry to disappoint you that um Republicans continue to keep our promises then we just again from all your questions all week long will the NDA pass this week not many of you ever asked me about the policy so I want to spend some moment your first question yes it passed now let's actually get through to what we promised the American public what we'd do I first want to start thinking about thanking chairman Rogers and all the members of the armed services committee for the work they did I'm grateful for their leadership on this important issue House Republicans have made a commitment to America that we would fight for a nation that is safe today we kept that Promise by passing The National Defense authorization act under this bill men and women in uniform who make sacrifices for our nation every day will receive the biggest pay raise in decades we all know they deserve it radical programs that are forced our troops at the expense of a Readiness are now eliminated Cutting Edge technology that is essential for the future of this country and to keep Freedom around the world in the rise of China and Russia will receive more investment than we've watched in the past and taxpayers will save more than 40 billion dollars as this bill Roots out wasteful spending the real question that you never asked me that I wish you would why did the Democrats vote no technically it's a bipartisan vote but four Democrats vote with us are the rest of the Democrats against the pay raise for their veterans are they against deterring China for a safe future are they against rooting out wasteful spending because they all voted against it today they can claim a lot of things but the biggest issue they claim why they voted against they voted for just last year it's a good thing the Republicans are in the majority but it's more important that we keep our promises to America and to our men and women who serve to defend us and today is exactly what we did with that let me call up our leader leader Steve scalise oh thank you Mr Speaker good to see all of you here today was an important victory for our men and women in uniform who risk their lives to keep us safe it was also an important victory for every American in this country that wants to see our military focused on our enemies abroad not on wokeness and all of the indoctrination attempts you're seeing within the Pentagon and there was a massive rebuke of that far left ideology and the push that we've seen under the Biden Administration these aren't things that Barack Obama did when he was President Joe Biden has tried to change the focus of our military and what you saw today and over the last week is Republicans and Democrats coming together to say let's focus on our enemies all around the world there's still Bad actors out there that want to do us harm there are still countries like China who are investing in a different kind of military that we need to be focused on and as the speaker pointed out chairman Rogers and all of the members of the House armed services committee spent weeks and months putting together a bill that refocuses our military on their core Mission the mission that under the Constitution we as a Congress have an obligation to go out and fulfill and protect and fund and that's what this ndaa does it refocuses on the real threats to America as a free nation and as the leader of the Free World and allows us to get back focused on that role yeah it's a shame that Democrats walked away from that it's a shame that Democrats walked away from a five percent pay raise to our men and women in uniform who deserve it because they wanted to defend a far left woke indoctrination ideology that's not the focus of the Department of Defense I am proud of what our members did coming together in a difficult time to say let's get that Focus back where it needs to be on defending America and protecting our friends around the world and standing up to the Bad actors which there are and they're getting more and more aggressive we need to be more and more focused that's what today's vote produced and the gentleman who put together that vote Coalition is our whip Mr emmer thank you uh first I want to thank speaker for his leadership the majority leader Elise everybody who's up here I want to thank the uh the best Chief Deputy Whip that anybody could have in the entire uh whip team guy rushenthaler and the entire team and I want to thank our members I want to thank our members for remembering why they were sent here they're sent here to put America First in American Safety and Security First and that's exactly what they did today everybody said this couldn't happen again as guy was telling me on the way down here I guess this was our next first big test I if you think about it we've had six months now of Kevin McCarthy and our house Republican majority speaker McCarthy and if the last six months have proven anything and I hope you're starting to take notice it's that House Republicans get stuff done this is the group that has been doing the work we've beaten the odds time and time again to deliver on our promises to the American people when the Talking Heads here in Washington and I'm not necessarily talking about you folks but it might be uh when the Talking Heads here in Washington insist that we can't pass things we have proven them wrong every time and today is no exception today House Republicans led the way in supporting and strengthening our military by passing the fiscal year 2024 National Defense authorization act the core tenants of this year's ndaa are simple modernize and bolster our middle military take care of our men and women in uniform and cut out the woke garbage that the Biden Administration has forced on our service members as you've heard already that the house Democrats couldn't put politics aside for one vote to join us in equipping our military Heroes Unfortunately today proves once again that championing their partisan left-wing agenda is more important to the house Democrats than continuing the six-decade tradition of coming together to strengthen our National Defense and give service members the largest pay increase they have received in 20 years once again House Republicans made up for where the Democrats have failed and we will continue bringing along President Biden and the fellow members of the of his party along with us as we govern for the American people with that our conference chair at least upon well thank you to our Whip and this entire leadership team I also want to thank all of the members of the House Republican conference today is a historic day House Republicans have delivered yet another result on our commitment to America a nation that is safe this is particularly important to me and my district I've been on the armed services committee since I was first elected I'm a senior member a former subcommittee chair and ranker and I have the honor of representing the 10th Mountain division at Fort Drum the most deployed division in the U.S army since 9 11. this ndaa strengthens our national security it invests in our men and women in uniform it invests in our military families there are a number of Provisions that I'm proud to have delivered tens of millions of dollars of investment in missile defense that will go at Fort Drum in Upstate New York the service member parents Bill of Rights that got bipartisan support in committee and is in the final bill investment in military housing and Military child care as well as the largest pay raise increase in the last 20 years I'm so honored to serve with so many newly elected members on the house armed services committee one of our rising stars and you're going to hear from two today is Jen kiggins who is a Navy helicopter pilot a former state senator and the representative for Virginia Beach here thank you so much for being here with us today to celebrate the passage of the NDA one reason I ran for Congress was to restore strength for our military it's so important that we not only fight for our service members and their families every day but that we give them the resources and the tools they need to get the job done to defend our great nation and this bill does a couple of things it maintains the number of ships that the Marine Corps asked for which was 31. we pushed back against the Biden Administration the number of ships they wanted to cut we have to maintain that number of ships we are behind when we look at our adversaries like China and where they are so it's important to again protect our shipbuilding and our ship repair industry and to give these guys the tools that they deserve another really important win for us today was that this this NDA focused on quality of life issues for our service men and women and again in their families for myself as a nurse practitioner my focus was mental health for our for our military service members and this bill does that we had many amendments that got into the NDA that expanded accessibility on for an availability of mental health care services for military men and women that's so important to us in addition to the millions of dollars for Child Care and housing so many of quality of life issues that we've neglected over the past few years that we need to continue to focus on our military is great our military is ready to fight tonight we are a strong fighting force we are the best in the world and I plan to keep it that way with the help of my colleagues and the other members of the armed services committee so thank you so much for for paying attention to this important issue and it's my honor to introduce a colleague and fellow Navy veteran Nick lolota from New York thanks shipmate I appreciate that uh awesome words I'm excited huh As Americans we're blessed to live in this the greatest nation the world has ever known and that's in large part because of our men and women who wear our nation's uniform as the stepson of a Navy man the brother of a marine the grandson of a coast Guardsman and a Navy veteran myself and a member of the armed services committee I'm incredibly proud that you we came together to pass the ndaa today this is a good bill it's a great bill in fact it increases pay Soldier pay improves housing education Child Care funding takes on China Cuts back wasteful spending and ensures our military is the most lethal fighting force the world has ever known I'm proud of the leadership of the folks behind me and especially in the armed services committee under chairman Rogers bringing us together talking about debating several amendments both in committee and on the floor that got us to the point that we passed this awesome bill that will fund our military and I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues to ensure that we Remain the greatest nation the world has ever known thanks so much back to the speaker thank you very much for that let's open up yes sir thank you very excited one how do you reconcile that the Senate product will be different and that it will be difficult if not possible to have the culture rewards in the conference version and second all sound Democrat lets in its hands what message is about sending to the Senate with this bill just focus on the military stop using taxpayer money to do their own wokism a military cannot defend themselves if you train them in woke we don't want Disneyland to train our military we want our men and women in the military to have every defense possible and that's what our bill does the money focuses directly on their quality of life and more importantly on the investment when you sit and look and the whole concept of where I came up with the select committee on China was walking the graves of Normandy as I walk those Graves I looked at those names they're all about the same age they came from different Faith from a star of David to crosses they all died at the same time and I thought as a policy maker because I walked right next to them at the time speaker Pelosi and I wondered what could those policy makers have done that that day would have never happened first and foremost we put your politics aside and you focus on the military so war never becomes that's what we did today in the ndaa what the Democrats did was put their politics before the men and women who serve they said no to a pay raise they said no to an investment they sent the wrong message to our adversaries around the world having a different bill in the Senate you can ask me that on any bill that comes out of the floor and you know what I hope the bills that come out of the house are different than the bills that come out of that Schumer's in charge of and you know what we designed our government to be this way because then we go to conference and we find where we can Unite there was a bipartisan vote on here but the majority of Democrats decided to vote against giving our military a pay raise I think that's wrong yes yes ma'am when Republicans talk about how you were able to assemble the votes to pass this they say that certain commitments were made on AUM Echoes can you talk us through what that looks like you know it's interesting you guys say the same thing every time okay so let me just come back what commitment was made well how can you bring something up if some you know what's so interesting to me you guys live in fantasy no what I told everybody from the process is does aumf go through the armed services does it okay it doesn't have the jurisdiction do any of you know what committee deals with aumf Foreign Affairs was this a foreign affairs bill no and so foreign affairs is taking up aumf would I want to something as serious as an aumf vote to take two minutes on the floor no so I've made the commitment to the American public that we will go through the committee of jurisdiction AMF is working its way through Foreign Affairs it's scheduled to come back in September and we it's something as serious as this we're not going to spend two minutes on we were going to I don't know how long it's going to take to understand the Democrats no longer control this place The Establishment no longer controls Washington on the house side we have opened this place up bills will go through committee we're going to get amendments on the floor people are going to have input you're not going to get jammed on a bill you're going to have time to read it and you know what the AMF is going to get done even though they haven't been able to do it for years and we'll solve this problem exactly how it's structured to happen it'll go through Foreign Affairs and it'll come to us in September and we won't have a two-minute vote to decide whether we go to give authorization to go to war or not and something that's been lingering out there for 20 years I think it's too serious and too important and it's the commitment I made to the American public so no I didn't do something special on this bill I just kept the promise we made from the very beginning committee is that true yes I asked Marjorie if she would be on the conference committee yeah I mean not to not to repeat myself but I'm going to love the day that I come in that you're going to sit back and say oh you told me this six months ago that's why you're doing it instead of thinking it's something special what I firmly believe in any conference is that you have to be reflective of our entire conference so there'll be a number of people who serve and I requested if Marjorie would be able to serve to be able to work on she has a number of issues that she cares about in the military and she agreed to be able to serve on that along with a number of other people they will well I don't want to take all your attention away so wait and you'll be able to see the list when I provide it yes ma'am [Music] I want to ask you if you agree with one of your colleagues comments today uh Louisiana he said we've gradually shipped to the center of gravity of the Republican conference towards the right what do you think about I I would think uh the election has shifted that we actually focus on exactly what we had said we would do have you ever read the commitment to America okay so what have we done since we've been taking the majority we have kept our commitment to America and that's exactly what we're doing yes sir I guess [Music] um there were seven Republicans who indicated should Ukraine's worried about your support in light of that as a third of your comments no did you see the overall vote I know you asked me a question I'm answering a question so what did this bill pass by on a bipartisan vote what was the what was the Ukraine Amendment what did that pass by it failed with over 300 votes the other way so you know math as well as I do and that's an overwhelming support here so I'd read it as that yes sir is there is there a concern at all and Antonio is getting politicized recently you know it's a concern to me that Democrats have politicized this because certain things for what exactly what your question is and I would think Tony would think this the same way the Democrats said they're not going to vote for giving the military a pay raise for giving the military an investment to make the world safer unless they had wokeism they said they would not pay and give them a five percent pay raise unless they go against something they voted for a year prior in a Hyde Amendment so yes it is concerning to me that the Democrats have gone that far for four decades for 40 years up until last year they supported Hyde what changed what changed what made them vote I'm sure you asked them the question why would they vote against the military on something they had voted for even the minority leader a year before and then he criticized people from New York on something that he actually voted for as well that's hypocrisy that's playing politics that's not right to do that to our men and women in uniform we have two veterans right up here Jim Higgins flew helicopters her husband flew f-18s her children went into the military Nick same thing what do you think they think when they look back when they get an answer from the Democrats it may have been good enough to vote for it the year before and what does it actually mean it means that they want to take taxpayer money to spend on something other than the military and all we're saying on the ndaa let's use the money on the military how can you tell me the jurisdiction of where this would be done then well if you do you think it doesn't belong in the NDA if you're talking about Hudson well it's not just me the parliamentarian does see what's very interesting here is for 40 years we have decided no matter where you sit on this issue don't use taxpayer money for it and that's called the high Dominion it is the military who a few people in the brass who probably taking orders from somebody else in the white house now to go against the law all we'd simply say is reinstate where everybody has stood for 40 years and focus on the military you're concerned about wokism I'm concerned about wokeism too I think our men and women that I listen to today that are having a hard time to meet our recruiting levels and when you talk to a number of people I just read an article I'm not sure if somebody in this room wrote it that we have men and women who are veterans from the military who are now not encouraging their children to take the same path based upon what's being trained today I think we need to change courts so your question earlier has the Congress changed yes the Congress has changed we're keeping the commitment we said we would do we're focusing on the principles that make America stronger and Freer and keep us safer so we will never be in war again last question didn't Support Final passage and speaking of Congressman crane what is your reaction to his remarks yesterday on the floor referring to African-Americans I know he said that he misspoke but is that acceptable that's not acceptable I'll take him out his word that he misspoke I have never heard him use that before so you'd have to ask him about that I hope you have all a great weekend I look forward to your question on Monday will we be able to pass the Bill next week as well so I think we will and I look forward to you asking me questions about policy too sometime next week take care thank you very much great

Channel: Forbes Breaking News

Views: 508,794

Keywords:

Id: sQ3W0PdSqZY

Length: 22min 57sec (1377 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 14 2023