I voted no on #HR4435, Howard P. Buck McKeon National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2015. I appreciate that, unlike the NDAA for each of the last few fiscal years, this bills authorization levels are in line with the spending caps provided for in the Budget Control Act. The bill falls short in many other ways, however. The bill does not reform or streamline our military programs in any significant way and rejects almost all of the Pentagons reasonable proposals to cut spending on lower-priority items to fully fund areas like training and maintenance. And, for the third year in a row, the House rejected an amendment (Smith-Broun) to guarantee that any person arrested in the United States will be charged and tried, as the Constitution requires. Sec. 1021 of the 2012 NDAA gave the president sweeping new power to detain American citizens indefinitely, without charge or trial. You can read more about the indefinite detention authority here: facebook/notes/justin-amash/the-truth-about-the-new-detainee-policy-in-the-national-defense-authorization-ac/296584837047596. Even though this authority comes from the 2012 NDAA, it doesnt expire; it must be repealed in the current NDAA (or through another piece of legislation). It passed 325-98.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 03:51:16 +0000
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