Congressman Maxwell Frost Statement on National Defense Authorization Act
WASHINGTON D.C — Today, Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost (FL-10) released a statement following the House vote on H.R. 2670, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2024.
The legislation, which was passed mostly along party lines, was severely hijacked by the extremist House Freedom Caucus and featured continued Republican attacks on reproductive health, LGBTQ+ servicemembers, and bans on books for military families – all while continuing a troubling lack of accountability towards a climbing defense budget that includes insufficient oversight and auditing of how taxpayer money is spent.
Despite this, Congressman Frost successfully included a critical measure to secure accountability for wasteful spending within the final package. Frost’s amendment, which passed unanimously as part of the second set of en bloc amendments, would require the Department of Defense and Armed Services Inspectors General to create a report evaluating the cost of financial investigations and the amount directly or indirectly received through financial investigations – putting more pressure on the Department to achieve financial accountability and cracking down on military contractors who inflate their budgets.
In a statement, Rep. Frost says:
“The passage of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act signals GOP House leadership’s continued inability to actually get serious work done for the people of this country.
“A bill that should have been focused on our national defense and the necessary accountability measures that need to be instituted within this budget became about book banning, restricting abortion, attacking LGBTQ+ folks who serve, and targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion at the Department of Defense.
“Despite House Republicans' lack of leadership, I am proud to have secured a critical provision within the bill to help usher true transparency and accountability as we fight to end wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars by defense contractors looking to line their own pockets at our expense.
“This is a sham bill that has ignored the real issues of our defense budget in an effort to attack servicemembers and prop up baseless culture wars – I am proud to have joined an overwhelming number of my Democratic colleagues in voting against it.”