Scott: Secure U.S. Bases Act likely to be passed under National Defense Authorization Act

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Following the terrorist attack at NASA Pensacola, Senator Rick Scott has called for a hard reset of the vetting process that allows foreign nationals to train in the United States.

He introduced the Secure U.S. Bases Act to address this issue in March.

In a phone interview on Thursday, Scott tells Channel 3 News, the act will likely be passed with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), being negotiated right now in Washington.

"There's broad support, both Republican and Democrat, of the Secure U.S. Bases Act," Scott said. "So my belief is that it will be part of the final bill."

Scott says the bill breaks down to three major points.

• It will put the vetting process of foreign military students in the hands of the Department of Department (DOD).
• The DOD will follow up on these students wile they're in the country.
• It will eliminate foreign military training in the United States that is determined unnecessary.

"What this is going to do is make sure that our military men and women are safe," Scott said. "I was in the U.S. Navy. I never imagined not being safe on a U.S. base."

Another bill the senator hopes is passed with the NDAA is a funding commitment for 5G technology.

"I'm going to do everything I can to help American companies do well with 5G," Scott said. "The important thing to me is to make sure that we don't loose our privacy through Huawei and ZTE and other communist companies."

Over the last year, U.S. policymakers have started to crack down on tech companies with ties to Communist China.

This week, the FCC designated Huawei and ZTE as national security threats and barred U.S. funds from being given to companies who use their technology.

"Every freedom loving country is going to have to do this because we don't want to have any of our private information or anything that our government is doing infiltrated by the Communist party in China."

The U.S. Telecommunications Act would invest more than $1 billion into 5G research and development to allow American companies to compete with international tech giants.

Policymakers are negotiating on the exact amount to invest.

Scott says we're still months away from seeing the National Defense Authorization Act passed as negotiations continue on Capitol Hill.