Horsford Leads Battle Against Fringe Policies That Will Weaken Our Nation’s Military

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Steven Horsford (NV-04), a member of the House Armed Services Committee and Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, for the first time, voted against the National Defense Authorization Act after extreme MAGA Republicans forced their fringe beliefs on nation’s servicemembers. As a member of the authorizing committee, he fought in committee to improve the bill with several amendments before it passed out of the committee with nearly unanimous support of Democrats and Republicans. He was prepared to support the bill on the House floor until several extreme amendments restricting reproductive rights, halting access to basic health care, and reversing efforts to address racism and marginalization were forced into the bill for political points with their conservative base.

“I was proud to work on a bipartisan basis in our committee process to pass a bill Nevadans, and all Americans could be proud of. The bill our committee passed invested in our servicemembers and their families, advanced our technology and innovation and ensured our military readiness. During the committee process, I was proud to get several amendments included before we sent the bill to the House floor, including funding for HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions, breast cancer screenings for servicemembers, and addressing energy needs at Hawthorne Army Depot. Sadly, the bill was taken hostage by extreme MAGA Republicans on the House floor as Speaker McCarthy once again failed to lead and caved into the extremists in his caucus. At the same time, a majority of Republicans supported the bill that came out of our committee, and it would have passed the House with some Democrats, including myself, voting for it. Instead, the bill became a zombie bill that will hurt our military readiness and recruitment. I stand with our servicemembers, especially the thousands that live and work in my district. Still, I refuse to allow Republicans to impose their extreme agenda on the well-being and readiness of our service members and their families and will always put national security over politics,”said Rep. Horsford.

Last month, as the House Armed Services Committee debated the bill, Congressman Horsford worked on a bipartisan basis to improve the legislation. He included 13 amendments, including a provision with Congressman Vern Buchanan (R-FL) to close a loophole denying domestic violence victims access to military transitional compensation programs. And he worked with Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) with the support of Congresswoman Jen Kiggans (R-VA) to address the costs of breast cancer screenings for servicemembers.

Congressman Horsford was also able to include amendments to address hunger for military children and expand digital literacy for the Air Force. He also secured an historic $125 million in funding for research investment at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs).
 
Congressman Horsford led the battle on the House floor against several of the misguided and hateful amendments, including several that were ultimately defeated. Particularly, he led the debate against the amendment to do away with the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in the Pentagon proposed by Matt Gaetz of Florida, after doing the same in the committee mark-up of the bill. Both times, the Gaetz amendment was defeated.