Adam Smith

Mr. SMITH of Washington

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1512) providing for the concurrence by the House in the Senate amendment to H.R. 7776, with an amendment.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Res. 1512.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio), the chairman of the full Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, I can't say it any better than the Speaker said. I think that was just an outstanding summary of the work we have done, why that work matters, and of the policy that we have put forward here. Once again, we have come together in a bipartisan, bicameral way to pass an excellent piece of legislation that reflects our values and supports the men and women who serve in our military. It gives us the opportunity to meet our national security requirements. It has been an outstanding process with pretty much everybody in this body participating in it in one way or another and producing an outstanding product. I will close by urging all Members to vote in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2023. I thank everyone for their work, and I urge a ``yes'' vote. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to myself. Mr. Cooper, of course, more than anything brought us the Space Force, and his leadership on space has been invaluable. Ms. Speier's leadership on personnel; I cannot imagine a more tenacious advocate for protecting the men and women who serve in our military than Jackie Speier. Her leadership has delivered real results and made a very strong statement. All three of you will be sorely missed. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the distinguished Speaker of the House.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. There are so many people to thank in this process, and we have done that, and there are a number of Members who are leaving committee, staff members who are leaving, as well. But I do want to take just a moment to thank three Members in particular on the Democratic side: certainly, Mr. Langevin, who is presiding over this appropriately; Ms. Speier; and Mr. Cooper, who are our three subcommittee chairs. During the 4 years that we were in the majority, all three chaired subcommittees, and delivered as much consequential legislation on the Armed Services Committee as I have seen. The leadership on all the different areas has just been invaluable. It will be very difficult to replace. Certainly, Jim's leadership on the Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems Subcommittee--the only thing about it is your subcommittee is a mouthful to keep up with. I would just say ``CITI,'' trying to remember what exactly it all stands for, but it is information technology, it is cyber, it is the guts of what makes our national security apparatus run, basically; the information systems that we have to make sure they are robust, effective, and protected.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Langevin), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise to urge Members to support this piece of legislation. I thank everyone who worked on this process. All told, from the beginning of it, to now, over 2,000 Member requests were considered in some form or another, either in committee, on the House, or as we worked with the Senate. With that open, collaborative, and bipartisan process, we have produced, I think, an excellent product. First, and foremost, we support the men and women who serve in the United States military in this bill. Most specifically, we serve the people who are economically struggling the most by a 4.6 percent pay raise, increase in the basic housing allowance, increase in the basic needs allowance, making sure that the price of items at the commissary do not go up so much as to price people out of it. We support the men and women who serve in the military in this bill, and that is the number one most important role that we have. This bill also continues on the work that we did on last year's efforts to reform how sexual assault is handled in the military by including sexual harassment in the portions that are under the jurisdiction of the special victim prosecutor. There is a laundry list of things we do to really improve the quality of life for servicemembers and to exercise our oversight. This bill also contains a number of other oversight bills; the Intelligence oversight bill, the Foreign Affairs oversight bill, the Coast Guard authorization bill--authorization was the word I was looking for--as well as the Water Resources Development Act. All told, this bill is Congress exercising its authority to authorize and do oversight of the executive branch on behalf of the American people; and I think that is enormously important. We are a coequal branch of government. It is our responsibility to exercise that oversight and represent the people. Now, obviously, the most direct, sort of blunt force way that we do it is through appropriations, the money we spend. That is incredibly important as well. But the authorizing portion of what we do matters a great deal. It is our opportunity, as individual Members of Congress, to set policy for this country at the Department of Defense, first and foremost but, as I said, also in this bill on intel and foreign affairs and the Coast Guard and elsewhere. It is really important that we get that job done and we do it really, really well. I can't go through every single item that is in this bill, but I can tell you that just about every Member of this House has something in this bill that is important for policy, important to their district. I know because they have been talking to me for the last 6 months about it. This is important policy that makes a huge difference for the people of this body and the people of this country, and I would urge us to support it. I want to say two more quick things before I yield to my partner-- actually, three more quick things before I yield to my partner, Mr. Rogers, on this. First of all, I really want to thank him, the staff, and everybody involved in all of that. To field that many requests takes a lot of time. The staff on the Armed Services Committee has been outstanding, and we are a bipartisan staff. We work together in a collaborative process. All of the committee members, Republican and Democrat, have worked well together. Heck, in this moment I will even say something good about the Senate. They worked well with us also in a bipartisan, bicameral way. I really thank them for putting that process together. Second, I do want to just briefly address, there is always a lot of controversy about issues not within our jurisdiction and whether or not they go into the bill. What has to happen on that is the committees of jurisdiction have to agree. Democrat, Republican, House, Senate, you have got to get all four. If you get all four, great, we are happy to carry it. If you don't, we can't. I know it is important to you. I know you wish we could, but we can't because we don't have the votes for it. So I hope people understand that as we work with them on those outside issues. Lastly, I do want to address the vaccine issue, and I want to make a couple of things perfectly clear. Number one, the policy that the Department of Defense put in place in August of 2021 requiring servicemembers to be vaccinated was the absolute right policy. It saved lives and it improved readiness for the United States military while it was in place because it was absolutely clear that that vaccine made an enormous difference in protecting people from the disease. It was the absolute right policy; that is number one. Number two, servicemembers who refused to follow that order had to be disciplined. Orders are not optional in the United States military. You cannot function that way, and we are not going to undo that. But number three, right now, today, what is it, December whatever, in 2022, a policy that says you have to have gotten the first shot, and that is what the policy is that we are undoing in this bill. It says that you have to have gotten that first shot way back in 2021, either one Johnson & Johnson shot or the two-shot Pfizer or Moderna deal. Right now, the science does not support that that makes you any safer today; it just doesn't. I urge the Department of Defense to go back now and look at that policy and think about what the right and best policy would be. But it does make sense to repeal that order from August of 2021. Personally, I would have preferred the Department of Defense do it on their own rather than the legislature telling them to. But since they didn't, I think this makes sense, and I think we ought to do it. Again, let me just conclude by saying this has been an excellent process. We have a nearly 4,000-page bill that exercises the authorizing and oversight authority of the United States Congress on behalf of the American people. We did it very well. We have accomplished a lot in this bill. I think every Member of this body can vote for it and feel really good about that. So I urge you to vote ``yes,'' and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Oregon.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Mr. SMITH of Washington

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I send to the desk a concurrent resolution and ask unanimous consent for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. SMITH of Washington

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize Garry Wade Owens for his many years of service as a civil rights advocate and public servant. Garry Owens is a Seattleite from birth. During his senior year at Franklin High School, he was part of the Seattle chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, playing a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. After his military service, he worked toward resolving discrimination and equity for marginalized communities. He was a founding member of the University of Washington's Black Student Union and Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1968, focusing on providing necessities and education to African American families and workers. He also worked for the City of Seattle's Department of Neighborhoods for 24 years as one of the first community organizers who helped the city with their outreach to underrepresented regions. He later became the manager for the Neighborhood Matching Fund, providing support to specific community projects. In addition, he joined the Legacy of Equality Leadership and Organizing board in 1991 and traveled to serve as an agent of solidarity in Cuba, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, and throughout the United States. He focused on community organizing, popular political education, and international networking to empower workers of color to have a voice and speak for themselves. My office and I were pleased to have worked with Garry through his advocacy and are saddened to hear of his passing. He and his contributions to our community will be sorely missed. Madam Speaker, it is my privilege and honor to remember Garry Owens for the achievements he made during his lifetime.

Mr. SMITH of Washington

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Clerk be authorized to make technical corrections in the engrossment of H.R. 7900, including corrections in spelling, punctuation, section and title numbering, cross-referencing, conforming amendments to the table of contents and short titles, and the insertion of appropriate headings.

Mr. SMITH of Washington

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. SMITH of Washington

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I urge all Members to support the defense bill. I appreciate the staff and everybody who worked on the effort. I recognize the Rules Committee staff, the Armed Services Committee staff, the floor staff, and the Parliamentarians who are the ones who have to process those 1,200 amendments, figure out how to write them out, how to make sure we are doing it right. I don't understand fully how you are able to do that, so I very much appreciate that you do, and we get a good product at the end of it. I think we have all participated in a good process. I urge Members to support the bill. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time not to speak on the en bloc, but this is the last opportunity to speak about the bill. We are going to have three other amendments after this en bloc, so I just want to do a quick closing and urge all Members to vote in favor of the bill. You have seen the process play out. I think this has been an incredibly inclusive process, starting in the committee in a bipartisan way and moving to the floor, where we have had the opportunity for all Members to contribute and participate in this process. I think we have a good product that is going to enable us to continue to exercise our oversight of the Pentagon, fulfill our duties as Members of Congress, and support the men and women of our Armed Forces in carrying out the missions that we ask them to do. I urge Members to support the bill. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Rogers) for his closing remarks.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I have no speakers at this time on this amendment and I am prepared to close.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1224, I offer amendments en bloc.

Mr. SMITH of Washington

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone).

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Speaker, I have no speakers on this en bloc, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Speaker, we have no further speakers, so I will urge adoption of the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1224, I offer amendments en bloc.

Mr. SMITH of Washington

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).