Section 1 Short title; findings
Short title— This Act may be cited as the “Carl Levin National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015”.
Findings— Congress makes the following findings:
Senator Carl Levin of Michigan was elected a member of the United States Senate on November 7, 1978, for a full term beginning January 3, 1979. He has served continuously in the Senate since that date, and was appointed as a member of the Committee on Armed Services in January 1979. He has served on the Committee on Armed Services since that date, a period of nearly 36 years.
A graduate of Detroit Central High School, Senator Levin went on to Swarthmore College, and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1959, gaining admittance to the Michigan bar. He served his State as assistant attorney general and general counsel of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission from 1964–1967, and later served his hometown of Detroit as a member of the Detroit City Council from 1969–1973, and as the council’s president from 1974–1977.
Senator Levin first served as chairman of the Committee on Armed Services of the United States Senate for a period of the 107th Congress, and has remained chairman since the 110th Congress began in 2007. He has exercised extraordinary leadership as either the chairman or ranking minority member of the committee since the start of the 105th Congress in 1997.
Each year, for the past 52 years, the Committee on Armed Services has reliably passed an annual defense authorization act, and this will be the 36th that Senator Levin has had a role in. In his capacity as member, ranking member, and chairman, he has been an advocate for a strong national defense, and has made lasting contributions to the security of our Nation.
It is altogether fitting and proper that this Act, the last annual authorization act for the national defense that Senator Levin manages in and for the United States Senate as chairman of the Committee on Armed Services, be named in his honor, as provided in subsection (a).