{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://desjarlais.house.gov/media-center?ID=4DB3B6C9-5B36-476A-838E-0B09BB92869C", "Rep. Scott DesJarlais Withdraws \u2018No First Use\u2019 Amendment from National Defense Authorization Act", "2021-09-02", "2021", "2021-09", "Republican", "House", "TN", "Scott DesJarlais", "D000616", "desjarlais.house.gov", "desjarlais", "https://desjarlais.house.gov/media-center", "scraper", "(WASHINGTON, DC) \u2013Congressman Scott DesJarlais (R-TN-04) delivered the following remarks upon withdrawing his amendment, Log 844, from the National Defense Authorization Act during last night\u2019s House Armed Services Committee.\n\n\u201cOne of the unfortunate impacts of the recent events in Afghanistan is that many of our allies are questioning U.S. resolve over the past month we have seen broad condemnation of President Biden\u2019s withdrawal from our various allies. We\u2019ve seen President Biden censured in the British House of Commons, in Germany\u2014the head of Chancellor Merkle\u2019s conservative party and likely her successor called the U.S. withdrawal the biggest debacle that NATO has ever seen. Latvia\u2019s Defense Minister said the U.S. withdrawal caused chaos and showed the west weaker globally.\n\nThis is not the purpose of my amendment. However, there is another Biden proposal which could build unprecedented damage to our allies that are already showing concern and that is adopting a \u2018sole purpose\u2019 or \u2018no first use\u2019 nuclear declaratory policy.\n\nThere isn\u2019t a single ally that supports this shift in U.S. nuclear declaratory policy. And we\u2019ve heard from the British, French, Germans, Poles, Japanese, and South Koreans that adopting such a policy would be devastating to U.S. alliances and erode our extended deterrent.\n\nI have questioned personally multiple commanders in this committee over the past year on this issue and I can\u2019t recall a single person who supported no first use and that would include General Milley on June 23, 2021, who said, \u201cMy personal best military advice is to maintain all options to the president of the united states at all times so I would not recommend making a declaration of no first use.\u201d Also, Admiral Richards quoted, \u201cI see a no first use policy as degrading the nation\u2019s deterrence. It will remove a level of ambiguity that has deterrence value.\u201d\n\nMy amendment would put in place a 90-day notification window and require the president to certify he has consulted with our allies before making any changes to U.S. declaratory policy.\n\nUnfortunately, due to a conflict with the majority in the House Foreign Affairs committee, my amendment is prevented from an up or down vote in this committee which I\u2019m disappointed because I feel that it has a very good chance of passing so maybe we\u2019ll see it again in another location. We don\u2019t want to further erode our relationships with our allies. And with that Mr. Chairman, I withdraw my amendment.\u201d\n\nThe National Defense Authorization Act passed the House Armed Services Committee and will now head to the House floor. Congressman DesJarlais plans to re-introduce this amendment on the House floor before the bill\u2019s final passage.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:17:01Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://desjarlais.house.gov/media-center?ID=4DB3B6C9-5B36-476A-838E-0B09BB92869C"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.850477023050189, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}