December 18, 2023 |
Photo – Whitehouse – Bigfoot99 file photo
In Washington, D.C. last week, U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., announced she voted not to pass the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 because she did not want to support a measure that “erodes the people of Wyoming’s right to privacy by rubber stamping warrantless surveillance of American citizens under FISA.”
The appropriations bill authorizes a 5.2% increase to purchase ships, ammunition, and aircraft. It also greenlights domestic spying.
“I will not enable the FBI, CIA and NSA to use back door channels to take away your freedoms, which is why I could not support this extension in the NDAA,” Lummis said in a news release.
The $841.4 billion dollar funding bill for the Defense Department passed both the House and Senate. Included in the bill are provisions related to service members and their families. The bill increases family separation allowance to $400 per month.
The bill also authorizes the Navy to sign multiyear contracts to procure up to 13 Virginia class submarines and authorizes the department to enter into multiyear contracts to obtain rare earth elements, which are used to manufacture the permanent magnets used in weapons systems and in the manufacture of rechargeable batteries.
Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder applauded Congress for passing the bill.
Sen. Lummis objected to more nefarious parts of the legislation. The state’s junior senator said in her release that she voted no “to shield the people of Wyoming from being unconstitutionally spied on by the federal government after the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) included an extension to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) without reforms that would strengthen privacy rights.”
The 3,100 page bill authorizes $28 billion more than the previous fiscal year, an increase of about 3%.
The final version of the bill includes multiple measures aimed at “ending wokeness in the military,” according to a summary provided by the Republican-led House Armed Services Committee.
The legislation does include critical investments in submarines, battle force ships, aircraft, combat vehicles, long-range artillery and other equipment.
The legislation would require the defense secretary to inform the 8,000 service members who were discharged for not receiving the COVID-19 vaccine that they can be reinstated and their personnel files adjusted so they can receive full retirement benefits.
Lummis was one of 13 senators who voted against the bill on Wednesday. Senator Barrasso voted yea on the bill. Other Republican nay votes were Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, J.D. Vance, and Mike Lee.
In the House. The house passed the bill, 310 to 118, on Thursday with Wyoming representative Harriet Hageman was a no vote.
The legislation now heads to President Joe Biden for his signature.
An emergency spending request for Ukraine was omitted from the funding bill, although the bill greenlights other commitments to Kyiv.
