Rep. Hoyle Votes Against Defense Authorization Bill, Which Extends Government Surveillance of Americans and Continues Endless Overseas Wars
Washington, DC – Following her ‘No’ vote on the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle (OR-04) released the following statement:
“Today I voted against the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which extends mass government surveillance of Americans’ communications for effectively 16 months without any reforms. This bill also does nothing to put a stop to our endless wars overseas nor rein in bloated Pentagon spending of U.S. taxpayer money.
“Let me be clear: I support many of the national security and policy priorities in this bill, including a well-deserved 5.2% pay increase for military service members, aid for our allies, and provisions that take much-needed steps to lower service members’ housing, healthcare and childcare costs. I also believe we should raise junior enlisted service members’ base pay to at least $15 an hour, and I’m a cosponsor of legislation to do exactly that.
“But this bill extends the federal government’s ‘Section 702’ mass surveillance powers that allow it to collect millions of Americans’ communications and violate our constitutional privacy rights. Congress should enact significant reforms to Section 702 to stop privacy abuses, but this bill prevents any reforms.
“This bill also does nothing to end to our military’s involvement in several overseas conflicts which have not been authorized by Congress as required by the Constitution, putting American service members’ lives at risk without any debate.
“The bill has provisions that continue extremist right-wing attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion and interfere in the curriculums of military service academy classrooms. The bill also fails to extend worker benefits from the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which provides support for uranium mine workers who were exposed to radiation from U.S. nuclear testing.
“I strongly support robust resources for maintaining our national security. But while the U.S.’s defense budget has increased exponentially in recent years, the Department of Defense (DOD) has never passed an audit, meaning there is no oversight to identify potential waste, fraud and abuse of U.S. taxpayer money. In fact, the DOD just failed its sixth audit in a row.
“Spending almost $900 billion in taxpayer money without robust oversight, as this bill does, is irresponsible. We must have a more transparent defense budget to ensure responsible funding for our national defense, to provide more pay and benefits for our troops and veterans, and for domestic priorities here at home.”
###