Congressman Rick Larsen's Online Office

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Representative Rick Larsen (WA-02), member of the House Armed Services Committee, released the following statement after today’s full committee mark-up of H.R. 5136, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011.

“This year’s National Defense Authorization Act makes the vital investments we need to protect our nation and take care of our men and women in uniform.

“This legislation improves the quality of life for our service members and their families by increasing military pay by 1.9%, which is .5% above the President’s request.

“Earlier this year, President Obama announced an aggressive plan to secure loose nuclear materials within four years.  This legislation authorizes the funding needed to implement this initiative, strengthening our national security by helping ensure that loose nuclear materials that could be used to harm the United States do not fall into the hands of our enemies.

“I firmly believe that we have a moral and legal obligation to clean up nuclear waste at Hanford, and I am pleased that this bill fully supports the President’s budget request for Hanford cleanup.

“This legislation makes important investments in missile defense systems that will protect our service members and our allies from short and medium range ballistic missiles, while rejecting unnecessary funding for the deployment of unproven missile defenses.

“I thank my colleagues on the Committee for supporting an amendment I co-sponsored that will require the Department of Defense to submit a report to Congress about the effects of illegal subsidies in the tanker competition. This will force the Department of Defense to publicly comment on the World Trade Organization ruling that Airbus has received illegal subsidies, an issue they have been ignoring.

 “I look forward to passing this legislation in the full House of Representatives in the coming weeks.

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