Wyden Votes No on Bloated Military Authorization Bill

Washington, D.C.—U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., issued the following statement after voting against theNational Defense Authorization Act(NDAA):
“I cannot support a bill that increases military spending by tens of billions of dollars and fails to include guardrails against Donald Trump and Secretary Hegseth’s authoritarian abuses.
“Donald Trump has repeatedly used the military to occupy major U.S. cities, including Portland—endangering our servicemembers, disrupting our economy, and eroding trust in our communities.
“He has also shown that he will use the Department of Defense to conduct deadly military operations without congressional authorization to intimidate political opponents and immigrants through the military, to purge senior military leaders without cause, to funnel billions of dollars in contracts to his personal supporters, and to waste billions of taxpayer dollars.
“I do support parts of this bill, such as giving our military servicemembers a needed raise, repealing the deeply flawed 2002 authorization for use of military force against Iraq, and increasing support for our Indo-Pacific allies and Ukraine.
“And while this bill includes the Intelligence Authorization Act, it lacks important oversight guardrails as well as critical Intelligence Community whistleblower protections passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee. The bill does include a provision I added to declassify information on whether foreign governments have helped their nationals accused of crimes in the United States flee the country to avoid justice, however, the bill’s faults far outweigh its benefits.
“For these reasons, among many other flaws in this bill, I voted ‘no.’”
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