Waltz Hopeful House, Senate can Reach Agreement on 2020 NDAA

Both the House and the Senate have been embroiled in a contentious debate over their respective versions of the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.

This week, both the House and Senate finally came to an agreement on how to properly move forward. With that being said, freshman Florida Rep. Michael Waltz (R), a member of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, released a statement discussing his thoughts on the NDAA and how the House and Senate were able to move the measure into conference.

In his statement, Waltz expressed that it was productive to see both Republicans and Democrats settling their differences and have moved  2020 NDAA forward conference. Moreover, he assured that “this bill is critical for the direction and resources of our troops and it’s important we resolve the differences between these two bills and pass the NDAA swiftly so the President can sign it into law before the end of the Fiscal Year.”

The House, on a 2020 to 197 vote, passed the 2020 NDAA bill.

The passing of the bill in the House authorizes the budget and expenditures for the U.S. Department of Defense and earlier this year Rep. Waltz detailed his support for the bill. The bill includes restrictions on contracts involving the Maduro regime, the bill would fully fund antisubmarine capabilities, it would provide assistance for Gold Star families, it would enable the acquisition of light attack aircrafts and it would also realize the formation of a Space Corps.

This Space Corps has been a long gestating project that Florida’s leadership has actively tried to base in the sunshine state.

Speaking on the Space Corps, rep. Waltz noted that “space is a warfighting domain and it’s important we protect American assets from hostile foreign actors.” Because of this, Waltz is optimistic that “the final bill will include a true sixth branch of the military dedicated to defending these assets in space.”