{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tuberville-urges-senate-to-pass-ndaa/", "Tuberville Urges Senate to Pass NDAA", "2024-07-31", "2024", "2024-07", "Republican", "Senate", "AL", "Tommy Tuberville", "T000278", "www.tuberville.senate.gov", "tuberville", "https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/press-releases/", "scraper", "\u201cWe need a military that is 100% focused on protecting our country and enhancing our national security\u2014not implementing the Biden-Harris woke agenda.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) delivered a floor speech urging Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to bring the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)that was recently passed out of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) to the floor for a vote. As Alabama\u2019s voice on SASC, Sen. Tuberville fought for key amendments to ensure the U.S. military remains the most lethal fighting force in the world. In the speech, Sen. Tuberville highlighted the continued need to support Israel and the woke agenda that has infiltrated the U.S. military under the Biden-Harris administration.\n\nRead the speech below or watch on YouTube or Rumble.\n\n\u201cOn October 23, 1983, terrorists killed 241 Americans, including 220 Marines, in Beirut, Lebanon. [Yesterday], Israeli Defense Forces reportedly killed a top [Hezbollah] leader responsible for those American lives lost.\n\nThe events of last night highlight why the Senate needs to now move on the NDAA to strengthen our military and our allies abroad. Instead, Sen. Schumer has done nothing this week but bring low-level nominations to the floor while the bipartisan NDAA gathers dust on his desk. It\u2019s par for the course for Sen. Schumer.\n\nDemocrats ride the fence on this because Hamas is a key constituency of the Democratic Party. It\u2019s why Kamala Harris couldn\u2019t bring herself to show up for Prime Minister Netanyahu\u2019s congressional address just last week. It\u2019s why the Biden administration has flushed Iran with cash and now Iran is bankrolling terrorism all over the Middle East.\n\nBut they act surprised when the Middle East is destabilized. They\u2019re more concerned about appeasing our enemies than supporting our friends and allies. Now, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have brought us to the world\u2019s worst border and possibly World War III.\n\nIt\u2019s the weakest Administration in the history of the United States of America. We\u2019ve become a complete joke in the eyes of the world. Which is why, Mr. President, I rise today to call on Senator Schumer to immediately bring the NDAA to the floor for a vote. Sen. Schumer has refused to act on this legislation since it passed out of committee on June the 13th with bipartisan support.\n\nAfter the events of last night, it is imperative now more than ever that we move this bill. Sen. Schumer, let\u2019s be serious here. If you really care about our military, you will bring the NDAA up for a vote immediately. Stop wasting our time on messaging bills that are a ploy to bail out vulnerable Democrat colleagues in an election [year].\n\nWe need a military that is 100% focused on protecting our country and enhancing our national security\u2014not implementing the Biden-Harris woke agenda. Which is why I\u2019ve taken steps to return our military to greatness in this years\u2019 NDAA. Among these victories, I count my amendments which will help refocus the Pentagon on its stated mission to \u2018deter war and ensure our nation\u2019s security.\u2019\n\nOne of these amendments includes eliminating all funding for the woke \u2018Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion\u2019 programs at the DoD. Another amendment prohibits the use of taxpayer dollars from being spent on transgender surgeries or any other costs associated with these surgeries. I appreciate my colleagues on the Committee for supporting my commonsense amendments that were included in this years\u2019 Senate NDAA.\n\nI, along with millions of Americans, am scratching my head as to why the DoD has implemented these policies to begin with. Sadly, no institutions, not even our great military, are safe from infiltration by the Biden-Harris regime\u2019s radical-woke policies.\n\nImmediately after taking the White House, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris weaponized the DoD\u2014using it as yet another tool in their arsenal to further their progressive agenda. One of the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s first moves was mandating \u2018Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion\u2019 training at the DoD. On day one, the Biden-Harris Administration announced that the military would begin conducting training to \u2018have knowledge of systemic and institutional racism and bias against underserved communities.\u2019\n\nThis hateful ideology has no place in the United States, let alone our military. The military is not a social experiment; it should be a lethal fighting force feared by our enemies and comprised of our best and brightest. The military should be built on merit, not diversity. It is dangerous and insulting to waste our troops\u2019 valuable time on political indoctrination such as this. And that\u2019s not all.\n\nIn 2021, the Biden administration announced it would begin directing taxpayer dollars to pay for hormone therapy and transgender surgeries for servicemembers who want to transition to a different gender. It is not the job of taxpayers to pay for someone to get a controversial, elective procedure. American taxpayer resources should ensure troops who are injured or sick get quality healthcare, timely. As they need it. And taxpayers should not be forced to bankroll these dangerous, experimental procedures that often backfire.\n\nOf course, the Biden-Harris Administration would rather spend valuable taxpayer dollars on programs that affirm its progressive worldview. The DEI and transgender surgery policies at the DoD are just two examples of the woke policies being implemented.\n\nWe can\u2019t forget that the Biden-Harris DoD illegally mandated that taxpayer dollars fund elective abortions in the military. I have spent the better part of two years fighting the Biden-Harris administration on this front. And we also cannot forget that the Biden-Harris DoD fired more than 8,000 able-bodied troops for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.\n\nNone of these policies should be DoD priorities. It is a distraction from keeping America safe and secure. And the consequences are dangerous.\n\nFor decades, support for the U.S. military was one of the few topics that brought Republicans and Democrats together. In past years, the U.S. House and Senate Armed Services Committees would draft the NDAA, which authorized funding for the military and establish policy priorities for the DoD.\n\nThese bills were largely bipartisan and not usually controversial. Both parties were united in the belief that the United States military should be the most lethal fighting force in the world. There were some policy differences here and there sure should be. But both parties largely left politics out of our military.\n\nThis is until the Biden-Harris Administration came to town. It\u2019s disappointing we\u2019ve reached a point where we need to legislatively intervene to refocus the Pentagon on its mission to protect and defend our great country. But here we are.\n\nPredictably, the Biden-Harris regime injecting politics into our military has come at a price. The departure from bipartisan, commonsense policies at the DoD has resulted in detrimental impacts to military readiness and lethality.\n\nTake recruitment, for example. In 2023, [the] Pentagon announced that it fell well short of its recruitment goals in what it referred to as \u2018the toughest recruitment year for the military services since the inception of the all-volunteer [force].\u2019 I would ask why would young men and women volunteer to serve in a country and in our military if it\u2019s become a place of far-left indoctrination? Why would young men and women join a military that teaches them to hate our country? Why would any patriotic citizen join an organization that is more committed to social justice than defeating our enemies?\n\nI must say, I share their concerns. The military under today\u2019s regime is not the same military that my dad served in over 60 years ago. It\u2019s the sad truth. This recruiting failure has resulted in a national security emergency.\n\nAs a member of the Armed Services Committee, I have asked our top military leaders about the decision to focus on woke policies instead of [addressing] the recruiting crisis. Unsurprisingly, they didn\u2019t have an answer for me. And the impact of implementing these left-wing social priorities extends far beyond the recruiting problems here at home.\u201d\n\n\u201cThese dangerous policies, Madam president, of the DoD have consequences for our military readiness and the world stage.\u201d\n\nSenator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans\u2019 Affairs, and HELP Committees.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:32:29Z"]], "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.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tuberville-urges-senate-to-pass-ndaa/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.436113078147173, "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"}