{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=C613E9F8-F301-4140-AA49-2962FF067953", "McConnell Highlights National Defense Strategy  Commission Report, Congressional Inaction On Urgent Defense Priorities", "2024-09-12", "2024", "2024-09", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", "mcconnell", "https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "\u2018Congress has a constitutional duty to provide for the common defense. We have a responsibility to align resources with our requirements and strategy\u2026 To provide funding adequate to ensure American military superiority. Unfortunately, this is work Congress must do without help from this Administration.\u2019\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding national security priorities:\n\n\u201cI\u2019d like to begin by reminding our colleagues of a report released before the August state work period. It\u2019s a report Congress commissioned in the FY 2022 NDAA, produced by a panel of experts that Congress appointed \u2013 the bipartisan Commission on the National Defense Strategy (NDS).\n\n\u201cThe Commission was tasked with reviewing the Biden Administration\u2019s National Defense Strategy and conducting an independent assessment of the threats and requirements of our common defense.\n\n\u201cAny of our colleagues who haven\u2019t yet taken a close look at this report should. But I\u2019d like to reiterate a few of its conclusions that I discussed last month as the Appropriations Committee finalized defense spending legislation for the coming year.\n\n\u201cThis ought to grab our attention:\n\n\u201cFrom the report, quote, \u2018the U.S. military lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat.\u2019\n\n\u201cA further quote, \u2018the U.S. defense industrial base (DIB) is unable to meet the equipment, technology, and munitions needs of the United States and its allies and partners.\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd, quote, \u2018the U.S. public are largely unaware of the dangers the United States faces or the costs (financial and otherwise) required to adequately prepare.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe report doesn\u2019t flinch in assessing the full scale of the threats posed by major adversaries:\n\n\u201cRussian victory in Ukraine would make Moscow, quote, \u2018an emboldened and likely stronger power, requiring NATO to build and deploy additional forces, potentially at the expense of other locations where those resources could be applied.\u2019\n\n\u201cAnother quote, \u2018China is outpacing the United States and has largely negated the U.S. military advantage in the Western Pacific through two decades of focused military investment.\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd, perhaps most alarmingly, the growing partnership and collaboration between our adversaries, quote, \u2018increases the likelihood that a conflict with one would expand to multiple fronts, causing simultaneous demands on U.S. and allied resources.\u2019\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s a sobering assessment with some urgent recommendations to go along with it. The question now is what we\u2019re willing to do about it.\n\n\u201cCongress has a constitutional duty to provide for the common defense. We have a responsibility to align resources with our requirements and strategy\u2026 To provide funding adequate to ensure American military superiority.\n\n\u201cUnfortunately, this is work Congress must do without help from this Administration. As one commissioner, Roger Zakheim, has observed, President Biden\u2019s 2022 NDS mentioned neither \u2018budget\u2019, nor \u2018dollar\u2019.\n\n\u201cBut after a week back in Washington, Congress is no closer to delivering full-year topline defense funding than we were on August 1st. The critical increases Vice Chair Collins secured over the President\u2019s anemic budget request are no closer to becoming law.\n\n\u201cNeither is the National Defense Authorization Act, which the Democratic Leader has yet to schedule for floor time.\n\n\u201cSo it\u2019s one thing to request expert analysis. It\u2019ll be quite another to do the urgent work that analysis rightly prescribes.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:46:43Z"]], "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://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=C613E9F8-F301-4140-AA49-2962FF067953"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7858399767428637, "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"}