Mac Thornberry

Mr. THORNBERRY

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Bacon).

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. DeSantis).

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wittman).

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter).

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Banks).

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Turner).

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Rothfus).

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 48, I call up the bill (S. 84) to provide for an exception to a limitation against appointment of persons as Secretary of Defense within seven years of relief from active duty as a regular commissioned officer of the Armed Forces and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on S. 84.

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, let me get right to the heart of the matter. We have to pass this legislation in order for James N. Mattis to be able to serve as Secretary of Defense. I know of no one more respected and more admired in the field of national security today than General Mattis. It is true that this is an extraordinary thing we are doing to pass a new law to provide a onetime exception to an underlying law so that a particular individual can serve. The last time we did this was 67 years ago. Our predecessors then faced challenging times and believed it was appropriate to go through extraordinary lengths to allow an exceptional individual, George C. Marshall, to serve as Secretary of Defense. History reveals that it was fortuitous that they chose to do so. We face challenging times today. We live in an increasingly dangerous world, and we confront it with a military that has been significantly damaged by budget cuts and other actions. I believe it is appropriate-- in fact, I believe it is necessary--for us to rise to meet the challenges of our time as our predecessors did in theirs and allow an exceptional leader to once again serve our country. Now, there are legitimate complaints about the wording of the resolution, about various procedural flaws, and about not exempting General Mattis from the UCMJ. In that regard, let me correct something I said before the Rules Committee last night. A retired officer can be held accountable for acts after they retire, although never has that happened to someone in civilian office. But there are legitimate complaints about the President-elect's transition team refusing to allow General Mattis to come to a hearing and testify before the House even though he was very eager to do so himself. I share all of those concerns. I think it was a mistake and shortsighted to deny the House the opportunity to question General Mattis on the issues related to this legislative exception. I think it was an opportunity to facilitate giving him a large, bipartisan vote out of this House which reflects the overwhelming bipartisan support that he has in this House. But getting back to the bottom line, even with those concerns, we have a responsibility to the men and women who serve, and I think we have a responsibility for the safety and security of every American to see that there is a fully functional Secretary of Defense on day one of the new administration. The only way we can do that is to pass this legislation today. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson).

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Kelly).

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Rogers).

Mr. THORNBERRY

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I include the following exchange of letters in the Record during consideration of H.R. 4298: House of Representatives, Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Washington, DC, December 6, 2016. Hon. William M. ``Mac'' Thornberry, Chairman, Committee on Armed Services, Washington, DC. Dear Mr. Chairman: I am writing to you concerning H.R. 4298, the Vietnam Helicopter Crew Memorial Act. There are certain provisions in the legislation which fall within the Rule X jurisdiction of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. In the interest of permitting your committee to proceed expeditiously to floor consideration of this important bill, I am willing to waive this committee's right to sequential referral. I do with the understanding that by waiving consideration of the bill, the Committee on Veterans' Affairs does not waive any future jurisdictional claim over the subject matters contained in the bill which fall within its Rule X jurisdiction. I request that you urge the Speaker to name members of this committee to any conference committee which is named to consider such provisions. Please place this letter into the committee report on H.R. 4298 and into the Congressional Record during consideration of the measure on the House floor. Thank you. Sincerely, Jeff Miller, Chairman.

Mr. THORNBERRY

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

Mr. THORNBERRY

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Stefanik), the distinguished vice chair of the Subcommittee on Readiness.

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot) who is the distinguished chair of the House Committee on Small Business, which has made a number of contributions to this conference report.

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers other than myself to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Heck), the distinguished chair of the Military Personnel Subcommittee.

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Ms. McSally) who is a very valued member of our Armed Services Committee.

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, I completely agree with the distinguished ranking member that to produce this bill requires a great deal of effort by a number of people, starting with him, other members of the committee, and other Members of the House. It is also essential that our staff, who support our work, be thanked, and he has done a great job of doing that. I agree with him also about the leadership of Senator John McCain, a man who, I think, is unique in the country's military history at this point. His leadership, along with the ranking member, Senator Jack Reed, has been obviously essential, not only in this bill but in Congress being able to fulfill its constitutional responsibilities. I know there are disappointments with this bill, Mr. Speaker. There are things that people would like to see in here, a lot of them not really core defense issues, but those matters had to be dropped to get this bill to this point. I am confident that the new administration will review the executive orders that the ranking member was talking about and that those unconstitutional restrictions on the First Amendment will be reviewed, modified, or repealed. All of that facilitated getting this bill before us today. I am also hopeful that the new administration will send us a supplemental request, because there are desperately needed modernization items from ships, airplanes, munitions, and other things that are not authorized in this bill but are needed desperately by our troops. So I hope--and I expect--that we will do better in the coming year to, again, fulfill our responsibilities under the Constitution. Mr. Speaker, I would just end with this: I believe the first job of the Federal Government is to defend the country. The Constitution puts specific responsibilities on our shoulders to raise, support, provide, and maintain the military forces of the United States. The most important part of that responsibility deals with the people, and this bill, if it is nothing else, supports the men and women who volunteer to risk their lives to defend us and protect our freedoms. For that reason alone, it deserves the support of every Member of the House. I hope it will receive that support. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Wenstrup), a valued member of the committee.

Mr. THORNBERRY. Will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I want to reiterate the importance of this issue to House majority conferees. For many years, organizations of faith have been able to both contract with the Federal Government and hire according to their faith practices. That has been especially true with religious universities, chaplain services, and refugee service providers; yet executive action under the current administration has created a direct conflict between the White House policy and these longstanding legal protections for these organizations' religious tenets. While the NDAA was always an imperfect vehicle for this discussion, majority conferees believe that these executive orders must be reviewed; and we look forward to working directly with the incoming administration to address the concerns, not just for DOD, but for the government nationwide. I certainly appreciate the leadership of the gentlewoman from Missouri on these very issues.