Defense and National Security

Throughout the history of the United States, a strong national defense has been critical to the preservation of liberty at home. This chapter of our history should be no different, which is why I will work to ensure that all the branches of our military will be provided with the tools they need to ensure our freedom. Our nation owes an enormous debt of gratitude to those who make it their life’s work to serve in the military, and we need to make sure that they are as well-equipped as possible when they are deployed in defense of our freedoms.

In the face of the sequestration policies being implemented by the Obama administration, defense spending has faced is facing cuts. Sequestration is essentially across the board cuts to a number of federal programs, and defense programs are set to bear 50% of the total budget reductions. In the 112th Congress, I voted for H.R. 5652 the Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act. This act would replace the first year of defense cuts with more common sense spending reductions that would not jeopardize our military readiness.

I support the following legislation:

• H.R. 10, Regulations From the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of 2011 (passed House)
• H.R. 624, Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act  (passed House)
• H.R. 459, Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2012 (passed House)
• H.R. 822, National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011 (passed House)
• H.R. 1905, Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012 (became law)
• H.Res.268 Reaffirming the United States' commitment to a negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, and for other purposes (passed House)
• H.R. 933 Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 (passed House)
• H.R. 6365, National Security and Job Protection Act (passed House)