Rodney Frelinghuysen

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. I would like to salute the dean of the House for his strong support of the USO. Over 40 years ago, I was one of those soldiers, and it made a real difference in my life. All of us want to thank the gentleman for his significant leadership here over so many years and for choosing this incredibly wonderful organization to plus up. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Chairman, I reserve a point of order. We haven't received a copy of the amendment. We would like to see a copy of the amendment if that would be possible. That is the reason for the reservation.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. If the gentleman will yield, there is some consultation going on at the desk. At the conclusion of those consultations with the Parliamentarian, I will have a better opportunity to respond in, hopefully, a more positive fashion. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Let me commend the gentlewoman for your strong advocacy. Just for the record, our bill does provide $155 million, including a plus up of $1 million above the request level of $55 million, for traumatic brain injury and psychological health research. Additionally, our bill includes $676 million in operation and maintenance funding within the Department of Health program to care for servicemembers affected by TBI and psychological health injuries. We welcome the additional money; we accept your amendment, and I commend you for your efforts.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Chairman, I very much regret that I must rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. As I rise to present the House Appropriations Committee's recommendation for the fiscal year 2016 Department of Defense Appropriations bill, there are nearly 200,000 servicemen and -women serving abroad, doing the work of freedom on every continent, and there are many more at home who are serving in every one of our States-- Active, Guard and Reserve--all volunteers. We are grateful to them and their families. They are certainly not all experts in some of the language and terms that will be part of our vocabulary during this debate over the next 24 hours--phrases like ``sequester'' and ``continuing resolution,'' ``Budget Control Act,'' ``overseas contingency account,'' and the ``global war on terrorism account''--but they have every expectation that they will have our united, bipartisan support for this bill whether they serve aboard a ship, fly through airspace, or provide overwatch on land to support a military mission. This legislation was developed after 12 hearings, many briefings, travel to the Middle East and Europe, and countless staff hours, with those who serve us, military and civilian, very much in mind. This is a product of a very bipartisan and cooperative effort, for which I thank my good friend, the ranking member, Pete Visclosky. It has been a pleasure to work with him. We are both fortunate to have committee members who are engaged and committed so much to this product. We are grateful for the support of Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Lowey. In total, the bill provides just over $578 billion in discretionary spending, an increase of $24.4 billion over the fiscal year 2015 enacted level. This topline includes $88.4 billion in the global war on terrorism funding for war efforts, and it is at the level assumed in the House-Senate budget conference agreement. I would point out that our House total is very close to the number President Obama submitted in his fiscal year 2016 budget request for national defense. Of course, the base funding recommendation is just over $490 billion, which reflects the budget caps enacted in 2011 as part of the Budget Control Act, signed by President Obama. To reach our reduced allocation, we reviewed in detail the President's submission and found areas and programs where reductions were possible without harming military operations, warfighter readiness, or critical modernization efforts. Please be assured we made every dollar count. To do so, we have taken reductions from programs that have been restructured or terminated, subject to contract or schedule delays, contain unjustified cost increases or funding requested ahead of need, or because of historical underexecution and rescissions of unneeded funds. Of course, our bill keeps faith with our troops and their families by including a 2.3 percent pay increase, a full percentage above the President's own request. It also provides general funding to their benefits and critical defense health programs. In another key area, this package contains robust funding to counter serious worldwide cyber threats--now an everyday occurrence. But I think we would all agree that the world is a much more dangerous, unstable, and unpredictable place than it was in 2011 when the Budget Control Act was signed into law by President Obama. The budget caps developed back then could never have envisioned the emerging and evolving threats that we are seeing today in the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere. So, to respond to current and future threats and to meet our constitutional responsibilities to provide for the common defense, we developed, in a bipartisan way, a bill that adheres to the current law and provides additional resources to end catastrophic cuts to military programs and people. These additional resources are included in title IX, the global war on terrorism account. That account has been carefully vetted to assure its war-related uses. Our subcommittee scrubbed the President's base budget for this year and past budget requests, and it has identified those systems and programs that are absolutely connected to our ongoing fight against threats presented by ISIL, al Qaeda, al-Nusrah, the Khorasan Group, Boko Haram, and other radical terrorist organizations, including the Iranian Quds Force. We also projected what resources the military and intelligence community will need to meet ongoing challenges of nation-state aggressors like Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and others. Not surprisingly, we have heard objections about the use of title IX to boost our topline national security spending in this bill. Frankly, I do not believe there is anyone on either side of the Capitol who believes this should be our first go-to option. Rather, it is a process we undertake as a last resort to make sure our troops can answer the call amid a worsening threat environment around the world. Again, we have been very careful about what went into this global war on terrorism account. We resisted the temptation to simply transfer large portions of the base bill's operations and maintenance accounts into the global war on terrorism account. We painstakingly worked to provide needed resources for the preparation of our forces in the field whenever a crisis may exist or develop in the future, like the current unfolding disaster which is Iraq. In a recent Statement of Administration Policy, the White House asserted that the global war on terrorism funding--the old OCO account, the overseas contingency account--in their words is a ``funding mechanism intended to pay for wars.'' I could not agree more, and that is why we enforce that account to provide President Obama with the funding resources he needs to lead us as Commander in Chief. Within that account, I want to highlight two areas of critical importance--ISR and readiness. We believe that a strong intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance--ISR--capability is a critical component of the global war on terror; yet a succession of combatant commanders has testified before our committee that only a fraction of their ISR requirements is being met, in essence, leaving them blind to the enemy's activities, movements, and intentions. Accordingly, the global war on terrorism account contains an additional $500 million above the President's 2016 request to improve our ISR capabilities: the procurement of additional ISR aircraft and ground stations, the training of ISR pilots and other personnel, and the processing of that type of derived data. Likewise, we share the concern of the Army, Air Force, and Marines about the overall erosion of readiness in the force. So, to begin to reinvest in readiness, title IX includes an additional $2.5 billion above the President's request for this purpose to be distributed to all of our services and to the Guard and Reserves. I would add that this sum must be detailed and justified to Congress 30 days before it is spent. Again, this bill is structured to give the President the tools he needs to act. For example, when he finally does develop a long-awaited, complete, and comprehensive strategy to combat ISIL and other terrorist groups, we have provided in this bill the resources he will need to execute his plans. I think we would all agree that America must lead, and this bill enables leadership. Mr. Chairman, I will allow myself a closing thought: The Washington Post recently editorialized on the defense authorization bill: ``There isn't much bipartisan governance left in Washington, but if anything fits that description, it's probably the annual defense bill.'' Mr. Chairman, this bill deserves bipartisan support, and after many hours of productive debate, I look forward to a bipartisan vote. Our troops deserve it. Our national security requires it. Our adversaries need to see it. I reserve the balance of my time. [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH10JN15.001 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH10JN15.002 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH10JN15.003 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH10JN15.004 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH10JN15.005 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH10JN15.006 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH10JN15.007 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH10JN15.008 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH10JN15.009

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers), the chairman of the full committee.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 2685 and that I may include tabular material on the same.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Crenshaw), a member of the Defense Appropriations Committee and a member of my subcommittee.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Palazzo), a member of the Appropriation Committee, for the purpose of a colloquy.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Barr).

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. I yield the gentleman an additional 15 seconds.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the gentleman's amendment. Frankly, we don't know its full impact. It could have some unintended consequences. This amendment could hamper legitimate communications between the intelligence community and NIST regarding security standards. This amendment is very broadly drafted. It could prevent NIST from consulting with other intelligence community agencies about that agency's internal computer system. I know it was reported that the 2006 NIST cryptographic standard had a NASA back door. I want to make it clear that NIST says they did not deliberately weaken cryptographic standards at the behest of other government agencies. They assure us they will not do so in the future. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this amendment, given that assurance.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. I yield to the gentleman from Indiana.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Reclaiming my time, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. We are prepared to accept your amendment because it is so incredibly reasonable.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Chairman, we will be pleased to accept the gentleman's amendment.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. I claim time in opposition to the gentleman's amendment.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Chairman, I reserve a point of order on the gentlewoman's amendment.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.