NEW: Langevin Signs on National Defense Report
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
As a member of the conference committee that negotiated a compromise between the House and Senate versions of the bill, Congressman Jim Langevin (D-RI) signed onto the conference report of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, urging his colleagues to put aside differences on a few specific policy provisions and support its overall mission of providing for our troops and improving our national security.
As Ranking Member of the Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee on the House Armed Services Committee, Langevin has pushed from the beginning of the committee process last spring to support and strengthen key defense work carried out in Rhode Island. He praised the inclusion of funding for those efforts as well as proposals he successfully inserted that benefit wounded warriors and improve cybersecurity. The NDAA specifies defense policies and program funding levels for the current fiscal year, and the version approved by the conference committee now moves to the floors of the House and Senate.
Congressman Langevin released the following statement evaluating the legislation:
“Last night I was proud to sign the conference report for the Fiscal Year 2012 National Defense Authorization Act. While there remain provisions with which I disagree, we have worked hard to arrive at legislation that can pass both Houses of Congress and provide the support that our service members need and deserve. We continued a 1.6% pay raise and included protections for our deployed and returning troops, such as MRAPs (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles and expanded access to mental health counseling.
“Moreover, this bill will ensure the long-term strength of programs critical to our national security that are carried out by Rhode Island’s tremendous defense community. The purchase of two new Virginia Class Submarines is fully funded, as well as the strategic Ohio Replacement Submarine and the Zumwalt DDG-1000 Destroyer. The legislation also assures our small business community has access to defense programs by fully reauthorizing the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program for another six years across the Defense Department and other civilian agency partners.
“Furthermore, provisions I advocated for will create an adaptive sports program to improve rehabilitation services for our wounded warriors, and provide important cyber protections for our military networks. Finally, the conference committee removed damaging language originally included by House Republicans that would have ended ambitious efforts by the Defense Department to switch to clean alternative fuel technology to break our dependence on foreign oil and reduce our carbon footprint.
“I am concerned that we were unable to strip a few ill-conceived measures from the bill. Requiring that terrorist detainees be held in military custody is overly burdensome on the Administration’s efforts to combat terrorism. However, provisions that have been included have helped assuage concerns about potential detention of US citizens in military custody and the flexibility of counterterrorism efforts by the FBI. In addition, the Senate blocked important language I included to establish a career program for bringing severely wounded warriors back into the workforce.
“Overall, this legislation supports the incredible sacrifices that our brave men and women in uniform make for our country every day and provides critical resources to our national and Rhode Island defense communities to carry out vital national security projects. I am incredibly proud of the hard work that committee staff put into bringing forward a conference report in a record one week’s time. I urge my colleagues to support passage of this bill.”
