Press Releases

U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) issued the following statement on his vote in opposition to the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act:

“I was glad we were able to agree on many issues in this markup, as well as approve my own amendments and priorities like establishing a U.S. Space Command and steps towards a U.S. Space Force. Unfortunately, we were unable to strip many politically-charged policies weakening our national defense, border security, force readiness and capabilities to protect our allies,” Waltz said. “I could not support a package giving less to our military than they need and deserve.”

Waltz supported the formation of the U.S. Space Corps, which is a critical step towards the establishment of the U.S. Space Force to accelerate capabilities and address space as a warfighting domain, similar to foreign adversaries like Russia and China. Like the Marine Corps, the U.S. Space Corps will have a streamlined acquisition system and a four-star commandant on the Joint Chiefs.

The committee included Waltz’s language to:

• Establish a U.S. Space Command
• Prohibit defense contracts to companies doing business with the Maduro regime in Venezuela
• Provide reimbursements to Gold Star families for the costs of transporting fallen service members’ remains to a national cemetery
• Expand Pentagon’s civilian childcare assistance program to legal guardians of children of fallen service members killed in the line of duty
• Require the Pentagon to look into better coordination and interoperability of friendly force identification technologies to reduce the incidents of friendly fire.
• Require the Pentagon to look into active hearing protection devices to support our troops and prevent hearing loss
• Eliminate statute of limitation for kidnapping a child under the Uniform Code of Military Justice

“Our troops risk their lives defending our freedoms and our country and it’s absolutely critical we give them all the resources they need to do that effectively,” Waltz said. “Our work can never stop for them – and I’ll make sure to keep fighting for their interests in the final version of this bill and long after that.”