To the Members of the United States Senate:
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce strongly supports the conference agreement on the "National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024." This legislation would strengthen and advance the National Defense Strategy and provide a solid and balanced approach for America's defense industrial base. The Chamber will consider including votes related to this legislation in our How They Voted scorecard.
We thank the conferees for ensuring the legislation would promote a more robust defense industrial base and flexibility for federal contractors to provide the goods and services that the Department of Defense needs. Multi-year procurement authority means that the Pentagon can continue contracts with companies and companies can keep their manufacturing lines open to deliver weapon systems for bolstering the domestic industrial base.
The Chamber strongly supports the Foreign Extortion Prevention Act (FEPA) provisions that would protect American companies from corrupt foreign officials who demand bribes as a condition of doing business abroad. FEPA is a commonsense reform that would outlaw such activity and help keep U.S. firms competitive in the global economy.
We also support inclusion of the Nuclear Fuel Security Act of 2023, which would directing the Secretary of Energy to establish a program that will expand both our uranium conversion and enrichment capacity to meet our domestic fuel needs thus strengthening our national security.
We are disappointed that the conferees dropped from the agreement the Building Chips in America Act. Including this provision would have prevented new microchip factories from getting snarled in years of needless red tape.
We thank the conferees for their work and ask for expeditious passage of the conference agreement on H.R. 2670, the "National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024."
Sincerely,
Evan Jenkins
Senior Vice President
Government Affairs
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
