I voted against the House-passed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), John, and I want you to know why.

There are many debates and valid reasons to both support and oppose the annual NDAA that Congress has passed with strong bipartisan votes for the past 60 years. The NDAA passed out of the House Armed Services Committee last week with very little opposition, 58-1.

But when the NDAA came to the House floor, Kevin McCarthy caved to his party's extremists, who loaded the final version of this legislation with controversial and unrelated amendments to further their culture war against women, LGBTQ+ service members and their families, common sense climate change policies, and DEI programs critical to military recruitment and readiness.

By any measure, you simply cannot say you care about our military service members and then cram unrelated, divisive – and harmful – amendments into a previously bipartisan bill.

I had concerns with the original bill, as I wanted to see greater accountability and transparency in Department of Defense spending, which doesn't have nearly enough focus on actually supporting our service members and their families. I also strongly support a return of the Congress's constitutional war powers authority, and I introduced a bipartisan amendment to prohibit unauthorized involvement in the war in Yemen. I also cosponsored amendments to end unapproved military involvement in Syria and to repeal the outdated Authorizations for the Use of Military Force.

There were also aspects of the NDAA that I strongly supported, like the 5.2% pay raise for military service members and provisions to lower housing, healthcare, and childcare costs to provide much needed relief to our service members and their families. These things are all in jeopardy because Kevin McCarthy and the GOP leadership have sent an NDAA bill that they know is DOA in the Senate.

I could not in good conscience support this highly politicized, dangerous, and irresponsible version of the bill which would hurt our service members and their families, hurt our military readiness, and does nothing to rein in runaway spending within the military industrial complex.

I came to Congress to represent the people of the 4th district of Oregon and promised to work hard, focus on outcomes, work in a bipartisan way, vote my values, and do what is best for our country. I am incredibly frustrated that Kevin McCarthy doesn't have the vision or integrity to lead the House of Representatives to do the same.

More soon,

Val