FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

December 8, 2021 

MEDIA CONTACT: 

e: jeanette.lenoir@mail.house.gov 

c: 202.480.5737

Washington, D.C. — Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09) issued the following statement on her no vote in support of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022 Conference Report:

“Last night, I voted against the National Defense Authorization Act. I cannot vote for a $768 billion defense authorization bill that goes $25 billion above what was requested by the Biden Administration while key priorities in our efforts to recover from the pandemic remain unfunded. Our bloated Pentagon budget cannot come at the cost of American lives,” said Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke. 

“Additionally, I am disappointed that the NDAA does not include cyber incident reporting legislation. While this legislation does include important provisions such as my amendment to provide additional funding for the Department of Homeland Security’s CyberSentry Program, which allows us to more rapidly detect vulnerabilities and identify malicious activity on the networks of industrial control systems and strengthens our defenses against the increasing number of cyber-attacks, it fails to meaningfully respond to repeated requests from our partners in the federal government related to improving situational awareness on cyber-attacks in order to better understand trends in adversary behavior. One year after the initial public reports of the SolarWinds supply chain attack, it is inexcusable that dysfunctional Senate Republican leadership delayed and ultimately prevented the inclusion of critical infrastructure cyber incident reporting language that could arm us with information essential to preventing the next SolarWinds-level attack. Without cyber incident reporting provisions, we are leaving ourselves ill-equipped to prevent and respond to future cyber-attacks.”           

“Further, legislation, especially of this magnitude, must reflect our values. This NDAA falls short in promoting justice and equality. Though negotiators were able to find bipartisan support for the authorization of billions of additional dollars to further enrich the military industrial complex, provisions to address racial disparities in military law and growing extremism in the ranks were callously tossed aside. This NDAA represents a lost opportunity to meaningfully address persistent racial inequity and the increasing threat of extremism,” Congresswoman Clarke said.   

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Yvette D. Clarke has been in Congress since 2007. She represents New York’s Ninth Congressional District, which includes Central and South Brooklyn. Clarke is Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Taskforce on Immigration, a Senior Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and the Chair of the Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Innovation Subcommittee of the House Committee on Homeland Security.