WASHINGTON, D.C. - Although he co-sponsored an amendment proposed by Rep. Kendra Horn, Oklahoma’s lone Democrat in Congress, Rep. Tom Cole joined his Republican colleagues in voting against the House version of the national defense policy act.
House Resolution 2500, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020, passed the U.S. House of Representatives, 220-197, on a party-line vote Friday.
DEMOCRAT SUPPORT
All votes in support of the measure were cast by Democrats, and 188 Republicans were joined by eight Democrats and one Independent in opposing the measure. Cole said he opposed the legislation because it “under-funds the Department of Defense, includes partisan provisions and deviated from customary process.” It was the first time the Moore Republican had opposed a national defense authorization bill “in my 17 years in Congress,” he said.
“There’s lots of bipartisanship” in H.R. 2500, Cole said during a speech on the House floor Wednesday, “but my concerns with the substance of the bill are many.” The $733 billion NDAA that passed the Democratic-controlled House is $17 billion (2.26%) less than the $750 billion NDAA that the Republican-dominated Senate passed on June 28.
REPUBLICANS DISTURBED
House Republicans were disturbed by the Democrats’ “reversal of some decisions” such as “slowing down the modernization of our nuclear forces and moving us away from low-yield nuclear weapons which... we need to counter Russian aggression,” Cole said.
The GOP is “disappointed” that the House NDAA “doesn’t include the long-standing prohibition against transferring detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the United States,” Cole continued. That restriction was imposed by a Democratic Congress in 2010, he recalled.
RESTRICTIVE POLICIES
The House defense policy act also includes “a lot of restrictive policies and prohibitions on securing” the U.S./ Mexico border. H.R. 2500 has a provision that would forbid “use of federal funds for construction of a wall, fence, or other physical barrier along the southern border” of the United States. “I understand there are differences” on that issue, Cole said, “but I would hope we could give the Executive flexibility in that area.”
HUMANITARIAN NEEDS
Less than a month ago, on June 27, the House of Representatives endorsed – by a vote of 305-102, a 3-to-1 margin – a $4.6 billion supplemental appropriation bill that provides aid to address the immediate humanitarian needs of the swarm of migrants at the U.S./Mexico border. That measure was signed by President Donald Trump.
Cole also took issue with “the process” by which H.R. 2500 was developed. Of the 441 amendments that U.S. Representatives introduced, 67% were offered by Democrats and 14% by Republicans, he said. “We don’t think that’s a remotely fair ratio.” Sarah Corley, Cole’s public information officer, explained that the other amendments were bipartisan proposals.
AUDITS
One such amendment was introduced by Rep. Kendra Horn and co-sponsored by Cole. It would direct the Defense Department’s Inspector General to conduct an audit of each of the military services and DoD agencies “as applicable to determine if there has been any excess profit or excessive cost escalation in sole source, commercial depot maintenance contracts, including parts, supplies, equipment and maintenance services.”
The amendment “addresses a need for oversight and accountability” in the DoD, said Horn, D-Oklahoma City. It is permissible for government contractors to earn a reasonable profit, but profits “outside the norm” are unacceptable, she said. The House adopted the Horn/Cole amendment by voice vote.
Another bipartisan amendment “reduces the regulatory burdens and obstacles for auditors and public accountants conducting audits,” Horn said. Horn, who represents Oklahoma’s 5th Congressional District, is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, which wrote H.R. 2500. Cole’s 4th Congressional District includes Fort Sill and Tinker Air Force Base.
HISTORIC FUNDING
The 2020 NDAA “not only authorizes historic funding for our nation’s military, it also includes a 3.1% pay increase for service members, the largest in a decade,” Horn said after the Armed Services Committee passed the measure and sent it to the House floor.
H.R. 2500 “creates a Tenant Bill of Rights and other key protections for families in military housing, provides critical funding for military construction,” and would ensure that all federal employees “have access to 12 weeks of paid family leave,” the congresswoman said.
NEW EQUIPMENT
The House bill authorizes more than $140 billion in “critical new equipment, including aircraft, submarines, missile destroyers, Blackhawk helicopters, and refueling tankers,” she said. “That also includes 90 new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.” The Senate passed a National Defense Authorization bill June 28 in an 86-8 bipartisan vote.
“In an increasingly dangerous world, Congress must show strong, decisive leadership to preserve peace through strength,” said U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-OK, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Senate’s $750 billion NDAA would provide “the resources our military needs to maintain our superiority.”
PRESSING CHALLENGES
Every provision in the 973-page Senate measure, Inhofe said, “Addresses some of the most pressing challenges facing our military: curtailing threats from great power competitors and rogue regimes, securing new warfighting frontiers of space and cyberspace and addressing management issues within the Department of Defense, in particular, privatized housing.”
The defense authorization bill approved by the House and the NDAA measure adopted by the Senate must be reconciled. A compromise version must then pass both chambers and be signed into law by President Trump.