REED: I rise to discuss the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024.

The Armed Services Committee approved this bill by a broad bipartisan vote of 24 to 1 last month--the largest margin in years. I appreciated the opportunity to work with Senator Wicker and our colleagues to produce this bill. Senator Wicker has been supportive, cooperative, creative, and has done so with great credit to the committee's traditions, and I thank him for that. I am also obviously tremendously appreciative of the work of the staff, Liz King on the majority and John Keast on the minority.

This is a strong defense bill. It is laser-focused on the threats we face. It addresses a broad range of pressing issues, from strategic competition with China and Russia to countering threats from Iran, North Korea, violent extremists, and even climate change. The bill authorizes a record level of investment in key technologies like hypersonics and artificial intelligence and makes real progress toward modernizing our ships, our aircraft, and our combat vehicles. Most importantly, this NDAA provides a historic level of support for our troops and their families, including the largest pay raise in decades. The bill makes meaningful steps forward at a critical time for our national security.
In addition to authorizing $845 billion for the Department of Defense and $32 billion for the Department of Energy's national security programs, there are a number of important policy provisions that I would like to briefly highlight.

To begin, we have to ensure the United States can outcompete, deter, and prevail against our near-peer rivals. China has emerged as our primary competitor, as the only nation with the intent and the capability to mount a sustained challenge to the United States' security and economic interests.

This NDAA confronts China by fully investing in the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, or PDI, to improve our force posture and build the capabilities of our partners and allies in the Indo-Pacific. The bill also establishes the Indo-Pacific Campaigning Initiative to facilitate increased U.S. military exercises, freedom of navigation operations, and partner engagements in the region. And, to help Taiwan improve its overall readiness and defense capabilities, the bill establishes a comprehensive training, advising, and capacity-building program for Taiwan's military forces.

I want to emphasize, however, that our Nation's ability to deter China cannot be based on military might alone. We must strengthen our network of allies and partners, which will be central to any strategy for the Indo-Pacific region. To that end, the bill makes progress toward advancing the security partnership among Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, known as AUKUS. This partnership provides a valuable blueprint that can help pave the way for other regional networks.

Now, even as we shift increased attention to the Indo-Pacific, we cannot lose sight of our priorities in other theaters, like Europe. This year's NDAA fully funds the European Deterrence Initiative and the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative to support our European allies and partners. Ukraine has fought with incredible skill and bravery to defend its sovereign territory from Russia, but there is much more to be done. The United States must continue to provide training, humanitarian and economic assistance, weapons, and military equipment to Ukraine to help the nation protect itself and rebuild itself.

As part of this effort, the NDAA includes significant support for America's industrial base to backfill our own munitions. This bill facilitates the acquisition of defense stocks related to Ukraine and authorizes the use of multiyear contracting authorities to help improve industrial base stability.

Specifically, the bill helps improve defense acquisition processes by enabling the Department to invest in and rapidly field cutting-edge commercial technologies. By improving defense small business programs and partnerships with high-tech companies, this legislation will help meet the defense, industrial, and civilian needs of the United States.

Indeed, America's capacity for technological innovation has long given us the strongest economy and military in the world. This advantage is not a given, however; it must be nurtured and maintained. To that end, the Defense bill authorizes significant funding for game- changing technologies like microelectronics, hypersonic weapons, and unmanned aircraft systems. It also provides resources to accelerate the development of the Joint All-Domain Command and Control, or the JADC2, program. This suite of technologies will help the Joint Force detect, analyze, and act on information across the battlespace, quickly using automation, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics. When fully developed, this concept will help our forces acquire targets as early as possible and rapidly deliver information to the best operator on air, land, or sea.

To accomplish the objectives of national security and the national defense strategy, our military services and combatant commanders must have the resources they need. In recognizing this, the NDAA broadly supports the procurement of naval vessels, combat aircraft, armored vehicles, weapons systems, and munitions requested in the President's defense budget for fiscal year 2024.

The bill provides additional funding for the Navy and the Marine Corps to accelerate the procurement of surface vessels and submarines, which are critical to power projection and deterrence around the world. The bill also provides greater predictability and stability in our naval acquisition programs and improves the United States' shipbuilding infrastructure modernization efforts.

The bill authorizes the Air Force to divest of certain aircraft and to restructure parts of its fleet as it evolves to a rapidly changing global security environment, and it invests in the Army's priority modernization efforts, to include long-range fires, future vertical lift, next-generation combat vehicles, and air and missile defense.
Developing these air, land, and sea warfare capabilities will be vital to our success in long-term strategic competition with China. Simultaneously, we must enable the Department to operate successfully in evolving domains like space and cyber space. With this in mind, this bill helps strengthen the cyber security posture of the Department and the defense industrial base by providing increased funding to adopt innovative and modern cyber security strategies, tools, and technologies. Ultimately, the key factor that makes the U.S. military the greatest in the world is our people. We need to ensure that our uniformed personnel know every day how much we appreciate what they do and that we have their backs.

Importantly, this NDAA provides a 5.2-percent pay raise to both military servicemembers and the Defense civilian workforce. As I indicated, this is one of the largest increases in pay in many, many years.

Finally, as we navigate the threats of nuclear escalation from Russia and increasing capabilities from China, the Defense bill strengthens our deterrence strategy by helping to modernize the U.S. nuclear triad. And there are many, many other provisions in this bill that will help equip the Department and our warfighters with the tools they need to succeed.

This morning, Leader Schumer introduced a substitute amendment to S. 2226, the committee-passed NDAA. This substitute includes 51 amendments that have been cleared on both sides, including 21 Democratic amendments, 21 Republicans amendments, and 9 bipartisan amendments.

Again, I am pleased that we have brought this bill to the floor so the entire Senate has an opportunity to participate in the process.

We have worked tirelessly, and we will continue to do so. I know that Chair Murray is here because she has the first amendment and would like to speak to that.