I am planning to vote against the 2015 NDAA. As the title suggests, the National Defense Authorization Act is supposed to be a relatively straightforward, largely noncontroversial bill. It is the primary legislative instrument for Congress to exercise its constitutional power – granted in Article I, Section 8 – to “provide for the common Defence.” This bill – the NDAA for fiscal year 2015 – is a legislative hodgepodge that includes those straightforward, noncontroversial items that almost all of us support, but also numerous other provisions that are unrelated to national defense. Most egregiously, the drafters secretly added 68 unrelated bills pertaining to the use of federal lands – the so-called “lands package” – into this bill without any opportunity for debate or a vote. None of these bills were included in the version of the NDAA that the Senate Armed Services Committee debated and voted on in May of this year... because, had any member tried to include them in the normal process, they clearly would have been ruled out of the committee’s jurisdiction. Another outlier in this legislative grab bag is a provision reauthorizing a Defense Department program to train and equip “moderate” Syrian rebels for the next two years. Now, we have testimony from some of America’s top military leaders warning us of the immense risks involved with this program. They have told us that there is no way to guarantee that these efforts won’t backfire, further embroiling the United States military in volatile and unpredictable Middle East conflicts. Yet here we are, forced to reauthorize this risky program in order to provide for our troops and the Defense Department. We can do better. The American people – and especially those serving in uniform – deserve better. And as we saw in the recent elections, the American people demand that we do better.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 19:40:59 +0000
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