Martha Roby: Provide for the common defense
Good news: the House of Representatives passed the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act. The NDAA is the annual bill that authorizes spending and policy for the entire military, including programs and efforts at installations in Alabama. This one wasn’t easy, as ill-advised cuts in recent years have left Congress and military leaders with difficult choices. However, I’m pleased to report that this NDAA does right by our troops and authorizes necessary spending levels for the coming year. Specific to Fort Rucker, this year’s NDAA authorizes: $187 million for the procurement of 28 new Lakota helicopters for the Army Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker; $47 million for elementary school improvements on post at Fort Rucker. Specific to Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, the NDAA authorizes: Critical funding for C-130 aircraft improvements, including $75 million for Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) installation and $33.2 million for C-130 engine upgrades; A $10 million budget increase for the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), which has a facility at Gunter; $7.6 million to replace the squadron operations facility at Dannelly Field; $33 million for elementary and middle school renovations at Maxwell Air Force Base; and $75 million in cyber operations procurement for the Commander of United States Cyber Command (CYBERCOM). Maxwell’s Air University recently launched the Air Force Cyber College which is focused on instruction in this emerging front of global warfare. The bill also contains important authorizations for military personnel, including a 1.3 percent pay raise for troops, $281 million in funding to ensure commissaries stay open; and empowering commanders to permit service members to carry firearms at installations, reserve centers, and recruiting centers. Overall the 2016 NDAA authorizes $611.9 billion, which includes both the base Department of Defense budget and funds for Overseas Contingency Operations. This is a great deal of taxpayer money, no question. But, I strongly believe that Congress must fulfill its Constitutional responsibility to “provide for the common defense” of this nation by equipping our Armed Forces with everything they need to fight the enemy and deter threats. In fact, one of my top priorities as your Representative in Congress has been to fight against harmful cuts to our military that erode our readiness capabilities and compromise national security. Unfortunately, President Obama had previously threatened to veto this legislation, and some in the Senate may still try to block it. That will not stop me from fighting to get it passed. Over the last year I have been actively building a bi-partisan coalition of lawmakers to make the case for protecting national defense in the budget. Working together, we will fight to build pressure on the Senate and President Obama to enact this 2016 NDAA into law and then follow it with a defense appropriations bill that fills in this funding authority structure. Martha Roby represents Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District. She is currently serving her third term.
Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton display the political divide over gun control
Presidential hopeful Jeb Bush and other Republicans declared their opposition to stiffer gun laws Friday in the aftermath of the Oregon college mass shooting, while Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton called for a national movement to counter the power of the National Rifle Association. Bush said more government isn’t always the answer whenever tragedy strikes — “stuff happens, there’s always a crisis.” President Barack Obama called him out on that remark, which Bush said was not about the Oregon shooting. “I think the American people should hear that,” Obama said, and “can decide whether or not they consider that ‘stuff happening.’” Clinton told supporters at a South Florida community college that she would willingly take on the NRA in a bid to achieve “new, effective gun control measures.” “What is wrong with us,” Clinton asked, “that we can’t stand up to the NRA, to the gun lobby and the gun manufacturers they represent?” Bush referred to the shooting that left 10 dead at the Oregon community college, including the gunman, while answering questions from South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson. The Republican attorney general, who hosted Bush at Furman University, first asked Bush about his stance on the Second Amendment, without reference to the school killings. Emphasizing that he supports the Supreme Court’s affirmation of bearing arms as an individual right, Bush talked about the many Floridians who have concealed-weapons permits and recalled receiving an award from the NRA. “Charlton Heston gave me a gun on stage in front of 15,000 people,” he said. “That was pretty cool, to be honest with you.” Turning to the Oregon killings, he called them “heartbreaking” but added that “the impulse in Washington is to take people’s civil rights away from us, and it won’t solve the problem.” Wilson followed-up with his own reference to mass shootings, and Bush continued, “We’re at a difficult time in our country, and I don’t think more government is necessarily the answer to this. “It’s very sad to see, but I resist the notion — I had this challenge as governor — we have — stuff happens, there’s always a crisis, and the impulse is to do something, and it’s not necessarily the right thing to do.” Asked later about his comments, he told reporters they were “not related to Oregon — just clarity here.” He appeared sensitive to the possibility of his comments becoming a controversy in themselves. “Let’s make sure here that we don’t allow this to get out of control,” he said. “There are all sorts of things that happen in life.” He cited a child drowning in a pool whose parents then want legislative action. “Sometimes, you’re imposing solutions to problems, and it doesn’t fix the problem and takes away people’s liberty and rights,” Bush said. “That was the point I was trying to make.” To be sure, Bush’s Republican rivals echoed his bottom line. “Before we start calling for more laws, I think we ought to consider why we don’t enforce the laws that we have?” Carly Fiorina said in Aiken, South Carolina. She said Obama’s response was “premature at best and at worst a really unfortunate politicization of this tragedy.” For Clinton, it was an opportunity to draw a clear distinction. She called Thursday’s mass murder “sickening” and said people should not be “afraid to go to college, a movie theater, Bible study.” The NRA, she said, “counts on really having an intense and dedicated group to scare politicians who say ‘we will vote against you.’” She credited her husband, former President Bill Clinton, for taking on the NRA and achieving tougher gun controls, and said, to roaring applause, “We are going to take them on again.” Obama spoke of a mismatch between Americans’ willingness to tighten gun laws and the powerful influence of pro-gun groups. “They know how to scare politicians,” Obama said. “The American people are going to have to match them in their sense of urgency if we’re going to actually stop this.” He said the Republican Party is “just uniformly opposed to all gun safety laws.” He also suggested some of the opposition was personal, driven by critics who think any gun laws “are an assault on freedom or communistic or a plot by me to take over” and stay in power forever. Even so, Democrats, too, have been a hard sell on gun control in Congress, an issue they have rarely pushed for years because it has been regarded as troublesome. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
