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Washington, DC – House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead Republican Michael McCaul is pleased to announce House passage of his provision to ensure that the Pentagon better harnesses the ingenuity of small and medium American businesses to address the growing challenges in our nation’s defense industrial base. It was adopted as an amendment to H.R. 7900, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed this afternoon. Additionally, a successful amendment sponsored by Rep. Young Kim and championed by Rep. McCaul would address years-long delays in the shipment of critical weapons to Taiwan and other partners of the United States. The NDAA passed with broad, bipartisan support and McCaul urges the Senate and Conferees to keep these vital amendments in the final legislation.

McCaul 1054: Requires the Department of Defense to establish and implement a strategy to increase competitive opportunities for innovative nontraditional defense contractors for critical technologies such as artificial intelligence.

“The full-scale invasion of Ukraine has highlighted challenges to our defense industry. Should more conflicts around the world erupt, the U.S. cannot afford to have outdated processes that impede our procurement of necessary weapons systems. We must rejuvenate our aging systems with American innovation, while setting the stage for new, best-of-breed systems.”

Kim 613: Requires the administration to focus on rectifying longstanding delays in shipment of defense articles to Taiwan and other Pacific security partners (also pending as bipartisan H.R. 8259).

“As the Lead Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, I signed off on weapon sales to Taiwan back in 2019, and these systems have yet to be delivered. This is unacceptable. Delayed deliveries of Congressionally approved sales to Taiwan are undermining our ability to deter an attack from China. This is incredibly concerning as China ramps up its belligerence towards Taiwan.”

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