Press Releases

This past week, the House Armed Services Committee passed the Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This bill makes massive investments into our nation’s most important asset, our sons and daughters who decide to selflessly serve this country. For fifty years, our nation has had the luxury of an all-volunteer military, and it has never been at more risk than today.

These initiatives are our efforts, as elected representatives on the Armed Services Committee, to ensure that our nation takes care of the men and women in uniform who have sworn an oath to defend our nation. This is not only our job as Members of Congress, but also the moral obligation of our country at large.

In addition to our quality-of-life investments, such as raising troop pay and increasing benefits for military families, this bill rapidly increases our military’s readiness. My colleagues and I have worked to authorize and secure resources that compel the Department of Defense (DOD) to innovate at the speed of war. In an era where all of our adversaries work simultaneously to undermine the free world, our military must have the tools necessary to deter war, and if need be, prevail on the field of battle.

I am proud to have had the opportunity to lead the inclusion of legislation focused on the issues of cyber, space, and our critical defense industrial base:

• Greater Cyber Capabilities and Efficiency: This bill includes legislation that would hold leaders of the DOD fiscally responsible for not following the rule of law, by withholding money until they work with Congress to address critical cyber issues. The bill also includes a comprehensive study on whether cyber initiatives performed by the DOD can be more efficient, effective, and resilient. This is a monumental amendment, and I was joined by many of my Texas colleagues in advocating for it.
• Resilient Space Systems: Space is becoming more accessible by the day. The US needs to ensure that space is free to navigate, and safe to the homeland and our national interests. This bill pushes the DOD to speed up critical capabilities and innovative technology that would ensure resilience in US defenses in space. It also ensures critical services are available in space, such as communications, navigation, and weather forecasts.
• Cost Effective and Innovative Defense Solutions: The US is in a tight fiscal position due to our uncontrollable debt and growing inflation. With the funding restrictions we do have, it’s critical that we innovate with the mindset of saving money. This bill makes critical, cost-effective investments in promising technology from ambitious entrepreneurs across America, many of whom reside in Texas. These investments include directed energy to shoot drones out of the sky, new batteries to break our reliance on Communist China, and hypersonic weapons–one of the most effective forms of deterrence we can wield against our adversaries.

Though we passed this year’s National Defense Authorization Act out of the House Armed Services Committee, the work is not done until the bill is passed by the House and Senate, and signed into law. For this reason, I will continue to fight in Washington to ensure that we are making the right decisions for our national security, for Texas, and for the United States of America.

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