William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021
Floor Speech
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Mr. GOLDEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Smith for yielding.
I want to take a moment to talk about an amendment coming forward today having to do with the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. I think it is particularly important.
Having deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, I want to paint a picture for you.
Imagine running a nighttime patrol in the mountains of Afghanistan or on the streets of an Iraqi town. I am sure you can appreciate the intense pressure, the stress, the focus required to do the job right and avoid any mistake that could get you or your buddies killed.
Now imagine the patrol is finished. You have got 3 hours to sleep before you need to get up and stand guard for an hour, and after that, you will go on a convoy back to headquarters to get supplies to bring back to the company FOB.
But instead of getting rest, you hop on a satellite phone to make a business call to the United States, where it is 4 p.m., to explain to a company why they can't repossess the family car or foreclose on your house, because even though Congress has passed protections for servicemembers, the company insists you signed a waiver of your SCRA protections.
Congress shouldn't allow this to happen, Mr. Speaker. This amendment would end the use of arbitration clauses that trick servicemembers into signing away their rights under SCRA.
How ridiculous that this amendment is even necessary, but, sadly, it is. I have seen it myself on deployments. It does happen. It has happened to the men and women I served with.
Congress should do something about this. These people are being put into stressful financial situations, and their families are, too, while they are serving our country and fighting for us.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the amendment and to fight for it in conference with the Senate.
Mr. Speaker, in closing, I want to congratulate the ranking member on his many years of service to our servicemembers on the committee. I thank both the chair and ranking member for their leadership of the committee these past two NDAAs.
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