Contact: Caroline Rabbitt Tabler (202) 224-2353
Washington, D.C. - Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today released the following statement on Senate passage of the National Defense Authorization Act:
"The NDAA conference report is a good step in the right direction, and Chairman McCain is to be commended for overseeing a swift and productive deliberation. But there's no getting around the fact that sequestration is hurting our troops. Accidents are now taking a greater toll on our troops than combat deaths because our military readiness has deteriorated so rapidly. It's clearer than ever before that these damaging cuts to our military must be reversed, and they would've been, if Democrats hadn't blocked a vote on my NDAA amendment to eliminate sequestration.
"But block it they did, and now they're shedding crocodile tears. It is the height of hypocrisy for the Senate minority leader to invoke the name of Secretary Mattis and lecture the majority about a ‘hollowed out military force'-for he's the one who insists on the hollowing. It would be funny if it weren't so disingenuous-and dangerous. So though I'm glad the NDAA has passed, our work won't be done until the Democrats stop using our troops as pawns and Congress votes to eliminate sequestration."
