Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the bipartisan progress made yesterday in working to advance the NDAA. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
Today, the Senate will continue the bipartisan process of passing our annual defense authorization bill, the NDAA.
We had a productive afternoon yesterday: we held votes on four amendments from both Democrats and Republicans.
We affirmed our unflinching commitment to our NATO allies by defeating an amendment that sought to undermine our support for the transatlantic relationship. Eighty-three Senators united to defeat this amendment, and I thank every single one of them for standing firm. That’s a majority of both parties.
In another win for NATO, we also adopted Senator Kaine’s amendment stating that no president can unilaterally take us out of NATO without Senate approval.
Adopting Senator Kaine’s amendment was an unmistakable message to both our friends and foes that America’s commitment to NATO will not waver. The political winds may shift, but America’s bonds to NATO will remain unbent.
That’s what passing the annual defense bill should look like: both sides proposing and debating amendments, both sides having input, both sides working in good faith to get this bill passed as soon as we can.
We’ll keep working today. After voting on the Cruz-Manchin-Fetterman amendment this morning, I hope we can agree to additional votes. We will keep negotiating on additional, reasonable amendments that we can bring to the floor so we can keep this process going.
Nobody thinks this kind of bipartisanship is easy – and both sides have honest disagreements, as we do on so many issues – but that should not prevent us from fulfilling our obligation to take care of our service members, take care of our DOD workforce, and provide for our common defense, so necessary these days.
There is every reason in the world to get this bill done as soon as we can. As I’ve said all week, the NDAA is full of provisions both sides can celebrate, provisions that seem incremental on their own but together provide a strong foundation for the security of this nation.
We’ll make important progress to outcompete the Chinese government. We’ll pass the first pieces of legislation this year related to AI oversight. We’ll strengthen our ties to Taiwan, increase our influence in the Indo-Pacific, make progress on the vital AUKUS partnership, and increase the Administration’s power to sanction and punish international fentanyl traffickers.
I mentioned this before, but I cannot emphasize it enough: this fentanyl bill is a major, major help in stopping the scourge of fentanyl from coming into this country, and members on both sides of the aisle should celebrate that in a bipartisan way. Under the leadership of Senator Brown and Senator Tim Scott, we were able to get this done.
All these agreements are the result of both sides working together; each one a good reason to keep going until the job is done.
Both sides will continue working today and into next week until we pass the NDAA. We’re making good progress, but, of course, we still have more to do.
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