Text of Senate Amendment 6583

On 2026-07-13, Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) delivered a floor speech titled "Text Of Senate Amendment 6583" in the Senate.

Text of Senate Amendment 6583

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 113 (Monday, July 13, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 113 (Monday, July 13, 2026)] [Senate] [Page S3781] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] SA 6583. Mr. SCHMITT submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 4784, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2027 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows: At the end of subtitle D of title XII, add the following: SEC. 1252. STRATEGY TO ENHANCE DEFENSE COOPERATION WITH NEW ZEALAND. (a) Strategy.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the congressional defense committees a strategy to enhance defense cooperation between the United States and New Zealand. (b) Purposes.--The purposes of the strategy required by subsection (a) are-- (1) to strengthen the defense relationship between the United States and New Zealand; (2) to improve bilateral and multilateral military interoperability, support security, and stability in the Indo-Pacific region; (3) to expand cooperation on space, and advanced defense and aerospace capabilities; and (4) to identify concrete actions to address shared security challenges in the Pacific and Antarctic regions. (c) Elements.--The strategy required by subsection (a) shall include the following: (1) An assessment of the current state of United States defense cooperation with New Zealand, including defense dialogues, military-to-military engagements, information sharing, combined exercises, port visits, personnel exchanges, and other bilateral or multilateral activities. (2) A roadmap to expand military interoperability between the United States and New Zealand, including through increased participation in joint and combined exercises, expanded staff exchanges, improved operational planning, and greater coordination with Australia and other regional allies and partners. (3) An assessment of opportunities to expand defense industrial base cooperation between the United States and New Zealand, including with respect to secure supply chains, aviation sustainment, munitions, maintenance and repair capacity, trusted vendors, and the integration of New Zealand industry into allied defense supply chains, as appropriate. (4) An assessment of opportunities to strengthen logistics cooperation with New Zealand in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, including through the Joint Logistics Pool, Christchurch gateway operations, support for McMurdo Station and Scott Base, cold-weather operations, airlift and sealift coordination, medical evacuation, search and rescue, communications, domain awareness, infrastructure resilience, and contingency planning for disruption of access to Antarctica. (5) A list of specific actions, timelines, responsible Department of Defense components, and resource requirements necessary to implement the strategy. (d) Form.--The strategy required by subsection (a) shall be submitted in unclassified form but may include a classified annex. (e) Briefing.--Not later than 30 days after the date on which the strategy required by subsection (a) is submitted, the Secretary of Defense shall provide the congressional defense committees, the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives with a briefing on the strategy, including planned actions, timelines, responsible offices, resource requirements, and any legislative recommendations to enhance defense cooperation between the United States and New Zealand. ______