Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, Congressman Matt Rosendale (R-Montana) voted against the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

“This 4,408-page bill, that will allocate $847 billion in taxpayer dollars, was put on the House floorwith less than 48 hours to readand had to be passed under suspension of the House rules,” said Rep. Rosendale. “While many Republicans considered the military vaccine provision a ‘win’ it merely suspends the vaccine mandate for our servicemembers, the mandate could be re-imposed at any time. It does not reinstate or compensate the thousands of service members who lost their military careers as a result. Funding our military is a critical function of Congress, but I refuse to vote for a bill that includes millions in unrelated spending for radical leftist policies and does not adequately help wrongly separated servicemembers.”

Background:

• Provisions that would strengthen U.S. national security against China were not included in this legislation. Namely, a provision prohibiting the purchase of Chinese drones.

• This bill contains many provisions related to the Green New Deal, such as creating pilot programs for transitioning the Department of Defense to use only zero-emission vehicles in their non-tactical vehicle fleets.

• Many provisions in the bill do not relate to national security, such as advancing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, permanently reauthorizing the Presidential Task Force on Wildlife Trafficking, reauthorizing the Coral Reef Conservation Act, and requiring the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA) to report on resiliency grant programs.

• This legislation requires the Secretary of Defense to create a pilot program for the “safe storage of personally owned firearms” which opens the door for enacting gun storage mandates on servicemembers.