Buck McKeon

Mr. McKEON

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Forbes), my friend and colleague and a member of the Armed Services Committee and chairman of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson), my friend and colleague and a member of the Armed Services Committee and chairman of the Military Personnel Subcommittee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Turner), my friend and colleague and a member of the Armed Services Committee and chairman of the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Rogers), my friend and colleague, a member of the Armed Services Committee and the chairman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wittman), my friend and colleague, a member of the Armed Services Committee and the chairman of the Readiness Subcommittee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Nevada, Dr. Heck, my friend and colleague, who is a member of the Armed Services Committee and is the chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from Indiana (Mrs. Walorski), my friend and colleague, who is a member of the Armed Services Committee.

Mr. McKEON. I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Chairman, this has been a great opportunity for an American to serve his community, to be able to come to the Capitol of this great land and serve in the House of Representatives. It is something I had never, ever contemplated growing up. It is something I never had thought about. But it has been a tremendous education and a tremendous opportunity to serve. It has been a tremendous opportunity to meet some really good people. You know, I have heard from the polls that the Congress has a rating of like 13 percent. That may be a little high. It may be lower than that. I heard somebody say that our rating was so low that it is just basically family and staff, and then after we cut the staff's health care, that it probably was just down to family. Fortunately, I have a large family. But I have mentioned to members of this committee--and those who are probably watching tonight have seen members of the committee that have talked about this bill that we have been working on, and I hope that they have felt of their strength, of their commitment, of their desire to do the things that their constituents sent them here to do. I told members of the committee recently that if people at home could sit in on the markup, if they could sit in on some of the discussions that members of the committee have had, I think our ratings would probably be much higher, because these things that we grapple with aren't easy. They are not simple ``yes'' and ``no'' answers to the things that we deal with. For instance, I know many of us a couple of years ago voted for the Budget Control Act, which brought us sequestration. It also kept the government open, because that was one of the parts of the vote. If we had voted against it, the government would have been shut down. I think it was a bad choice that we had to make, but I was assured that sequestration would never happen. Well, we found out it happened, and it is causing us a lot of problems with our national defense. You know, the beauty of being able to serve on this committee is we get to serve with men and women who really sacrifice much. The men and women and their families sacrifice much to look out for our interests both at home and abroad, and I want to thank them. I want to thank all of the members of the committee. I want to thank all of our staff for the tremendous work that they do. They spent hours last night just going through these amendments, and they have been there constantly. They are all people of great expertise and great understanding of the issues that we face. With that, Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask all of my colleagues to follow this debate closely and support this bill as we come to final passage. With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the gentleman. We just had a little discussion. The amendment he plans on presenting tonight is something that we have not in the committee been able to hold hearings on and to really discuss fully in the committee. It didn't come up at the full committee or the subcommittee level, but he has an issue that is very important to him, it is very important to his State, it is very important to many people around this Nation. What I told him is that this is the start of a process. It is a continuation of a process that we started in January with hearings, with subcommittee hearings, with subcommittee markups, and full committee markups, but we are not even halfway through the process yet. After we pass our bill on the floor, the Senate is marking their bill up this week, and at some point, they will mark it on the floor, and then there will be a conference, so there is much to do between now and the end.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the gentleman for his concern and for bringing this issue to the floor. We did address this in the underlying bill. DOD contractors are providing very important services. It supports the ISAF mission in Afghanistan, and they should not be illegally taxed. We need to address this. I think the gentleman's amendment will move the process forward. I think we have time between now and the Senate passage and conference to resolve the issue. Also, hopefully there will be a new President in Afghanistan that will have a whole different way of addressing the situation. So what I would ask is that we do continue to work together on this as we move the process forward through conference.

Mr. McKEON

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Major General William E. Rapp. Major General Rapp distinguished himself through exceptionally meritorious service from 1 August 2012 to 1 June 2014, while serving as the Chief of Army Legislative Liaison. During this period of extraordinary change, continued combat operations in Afghanistan, and significant fiscal constraints and challenges facing the Army, Major General Rapp implemented and fostered a significantly improved strategic partnership with the 113th Congress. He clearly understood the importance of Congressional oversight and spearheaded the execution of an Army strategy to enhance Congressional trust and confidence in Army programs, policies and operations. Major General Rapp did a truly outstanding job in dealing with some of the most complex issues the Army faced during the last two legislative cycles with unparalleled results, enabling the Army to receive the necessary authorities and resources to support combat operations, sustain the all-volunteer force and maintain the quality of life for Soldiers, their Families and Army Civilians. Major General Rapp's outstanding leadership, strategic vision, and keen judgment are in keeping with the finest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon him, the Office of the Army Legislative Liaison and the United States Army.

Mr. McKEON

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 441) providing for the concurrence by the House in the Senate amendments to H.R. 3304, with an amendment.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on the matter under consideration.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. I rise today in support of the fiscal year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act. The NDAA is the key mechanism by which the Congress fulfills its primary constitutional responsibility to provide for the common defense, and this year will mark the 52nd consecutive year that we have completed our work. The NDAA passed the Armed Services Committee with a vote of 59-2. It passed the full House by a margin of 315-108. Likewise, the Senate voted its version of the bill out of committee by a vote of 23-3. This year we had unique challenges in bringing back a bipartisan, bicameral deal to the House for final consideration. Yet despite those obstacles, we were able to negotiate a bipartisan bill with our Senate colleagues. I am especially grateful to Ranking Member Adam Smith as well as Chairman Levin and Ranking Member Inhofe of the Senate Armed Services Committee. They all rolled up their sleeves, and we got the bill done in the allotted time. Believe me, that was no small hill to climb. On a related note, I would be remiss if I failed to note that we will be voting on another hard-fought measure that is critical to defense. We have in sight a budget agreement for the next 2 years that provides a measure of predictability for our military. As we take the first steps to get this deal enacted, I wanted to assure Members that the NDAA's authorization levels remain in compliance with the Budget Control Act and the House, the Senate, and the Republican Study Committee-approved budgets for 2014. What makes this bill such an important piece of legislation are the vital authorities contained therein, which is why Chairman Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; General Amos, Commandant of the Marine Corps; The Washington Post; the National Guard Bureau; and others all weighed in this week urging us to complete consideration of the bill. This legislation pays our troops and their families. It keeps our Navy fleet sailing and military aircraft flying. It maintains a strong nuclear deterrent. This year's NDAA also provides badly needed reforms to help alleviate the crisis of sexual assault in the military. I want to thank Congressmen Mike Turner and Niki Tsongas of our committee for leading a bipartisan group of members who worked tirelessly on those reforms; also Joe Wilson, chairman of the subcommittee, and Susan Davis, his ranking member, for the efforts they made on this issue. They were long overdue. The NDAA covers many more critical issues, but I will close in the interest of time. Before I do, I would like to thank all our members of the Armed Services Committee for their efforts. I am grateful not only for the hardworking chairs and ranking members of the HASC, but also to all Members of this body for recognizing the importance of this vital piece of legislation, along with all members of our staff on both sides of the aisle. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McKEON

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Thornberry), my friend and colleague, the vice chairman of the Armed Services Committee and chairman of the Intelligence, Emerging Threats, and Capabilities Subcommittee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Forbes), my friend and colleague, the chairman of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson), my friend and colleague, chairman of the Military Personnel Subcommittee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Turner), the chairman of the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Rogers), the chairman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wittman), my friend and colleague, and the chairman of the Readiness Subcommittee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Mrs. Roby), our former chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, who was recently moved from our committee to the Appropriations Committee. She will be sorely missed.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Indiana (Mrs. Walorski), my friend and colleague, a member of the Armed Services Committee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the remaining time?

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I will be the concluding speaker here, so I will reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.