Schakowsky Statement on Voting Against the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023

WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), a Senior Chief Deputy Whip and Chair of the Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee, released the following statement after voting against H.R. 7776, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023:

“Today, I voted against final passage of the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). While I supported several positive components of this legislation, I could not in good conscience vote for the bill in its entirety. The FY 2023 NDAA authorizes a historically high $847 billion in new defense spending – an increase of nearly $80 billion over last year’s authorization, $45 billion above what the Administration requested, and far higher than either the House Armed Services Committee or the Senate Armed Services Committee recommended earlier this year.

“The FY 2023 NDAA also fails to suspend unnecessary and dangerous nuclear programs that the President explicitly rejected. It fails to curb the 1033 program, which provides military equipment to domestic law enforcement agencies at free or discounted rates, and it does not include critical provisions that reassert Congress’s constitutional authority over war and peace. It failed to repeal the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force against Iraq, despite having a majority of support to repeal in both the House and Senate. Finally, it failed to include my labor neutrality amendment that passed the House earlier this year, which would have given preference to DOD contractors that enter into neutrality agreements with unions. It is clearer than ever that this is needed as DOD just granted a huge cloud computing contract to Amazon, a company notorious for union-busting.

“Unfortunately, this legislation does not reflect the best interests of our nation at this moment in time. Our greatest security threats have no military solutions, and it is time our budget reflects that. Instead of giving the Pentagon $45 billion it did not ask for, we should make the investments in health care, education, housing, public transit, and the environment that Americans deserve. That is why I ultimately could not support the FY 2023 NDAA’s passage.”

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