Floor Statements

Madam President, I have heard from other sources about Shannon Kent, to whom he is referring, and she is in fact an American hero. Everything he said about her is very true; however, everything he said about our President is not very true. Here we are, with probably the best economy we have had in my life--

Madam President, I just want to comment that every time I hear things about the President--you have to keep in mind that we have the best economy we have had. Unemployment is at 4 percent. We are better than we have ever been.

We went through 8 years with the Obama administration taking down our military to the point where we allowed Russia and China to get ahead of us in many areas, such as hypersonics, and now we are going into this thing with a Defense authorization bill. But it is this President who is changing--trying to overcome the problems.

I don't criticize President Obama because he was really feeling where his priorities should be, and they have not been to defend America. He set up this system that says for every dollar that you put into the military, you have to put a dollar into nonmilitary, and that is just not what we are supposed to be doing in this country.

So we are going to get to the point at which the American people are going to be very proud that we are going to have systems, we are going to have weaponry, we are going to be back to where we used to be and we have been since World War II--having the best equipment, treating our people the best, having the best troops. We already have the best troops in the field. We need to do for them what they are doing for us. That is what this bill is all about.

Again, this President has been very supportive in rebuilding the military.

Look at the court system. Right now we have great new jurists. We are up to over 40 appellate judges who now have been confirmed.

So good things are happening. This President is accountable for these good things, and I can assure you that the American people know better than some of the stuff they hear about President Trump. It is just not true.

I want to get on record here because we have some votes coming up having to do with the joint resolution of disapproval regarding arms sales to Bahrain and Qatar.

These two Arabian Peninsula states are important to the American partners in countering Iran and combating ISIS and other terrorist groups. We depend on them. They are our friends.

Bahrain actually hosts about 7,000 U.S. personnel, and that would be in the U.S. Fifth Fleet.

Qatar hosts about 10,000 U.S. personnel, as well as the Combined Air Operations Center at Al Udeid Air Base.

Through these arms sales, we can improve cooperation, enhance interoperability, and help our partners defend themselves and our American troops in the region. They are defending themselves. They are defending our American troops who are over there right now. I really get concerned when things like this come up. What is the rest of the world to say when we treat our allies this way and we renege on a commitment that we made?

Through these arms sales, we can improve cooperation and we can improve our relationships in that whole part of the world, but, more importantly, if we renege on these arms sales, we will undermine the national defense strategy. The ``National Defense Strategy'' is a book. I should have brought it down to hold it up. I normally do when we talk about it. It is something in which Democrats and Republicans agree to get America back on top; this is what we need to do. Part of this and the recommendations of the national defense strategy made up of top Democratic and Republican leaders in the field of defending America-- they are all in agreement that we can't renege on the commitments that we have made on these arms sales.

I recall that the top NDS priority is competing with Russia and China. That is one of the things that happened during the last administration. All of a sudden we find we have peer competitors. We have China and Russia doing things right now where they actually are exhibiting better equipment and better resources than we are. So we have to stand by our partners.

Make no mistake about it. If something happens and they can't rely on us for their defensive needs, they are going to go someplace else. Where will they go? Will they go to Russia? Will they go to China? I can assure you, the main thing that people overlook is they are going to get the arms from someplace. They will either get them from us or they will get them from Russia and China.

I have to ask my colleagues who support this resolution, do you expect Russia and China to ensure the freedom of navigation in the Middle East against Iranian threats? Will Russia and China lead a coalition to defeat ISIS? No. You know better than that.

Will Russia and China deter Iran from attacking our partners and troops in this region?

I understand that my colleagues have concerns about Saudi Arabia's terrible human rights record. I agree. I am offended by that. This is a different issue altogether. This is an issue of whether we are going to keep our commitment to our allies in that very sensitive region where we need more allies. Or are we going to renege on our commitments to them? Keep in mind, they are going to get them anyway.

I know that some of my colleagues disagree with the administration's recent emergency declaration regarding arms sales to Saudi Arabia, but the leadership has assured me that we will have a vote on Saudi Arabia, so I urge my colleagues to raise their concerns about this at that time. That is the appropriate time to bring this up.

More to the point, I urge them not to punish Bahrain and Qatar inappropriately and not to undermine U.S. national security interests in that region. The bottom line is everyone understands that Bahrain and Qatar are going to get arms anyway. They are going to get them either from us or from those who are our adversaries. That is why this is so important. I strongly urge that we defeat these efforts that are out there right now to try to stop the arms sales that are taking place now.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, today I wish to recognize and congratulate BG Louis W. Wilham, assistant adjutant general of the Oklahoma Army National Guard, for his extraordinary dedication to duty and service to our Nation. Brigadier General Wilham will soon retire from the Oklahoma National Guard after 31 years of service.

Brigadier General Wilham enlisted in the Oklahoma Army National Guard in 1987 and received his commission through the Oklahoma Military Department's officer candidate school in 1989. Since then, General Wilham has served in a variety of key leadership and staff positions within the Oklahoma National Guard, commanding at the company, battalion, and brigade levels prior to serving as the assistant adjutant general and interim adjutant general. Throughout the course of his career, Brigadier General Wilham has supported numerous mobilizations for both State and Federal missions. In 2008, he deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, serving with the Joint Area Support Group-Central in Baghdad. In 2017, while serving as the interim adjutant general of the Oklahoma National Guard, Brigadier General Wilham oversaw the mobilization of over 2,000 Oklahoma soldiers and airmen in support of Hurricane Harvey.

During the course of Brigadier General Wilham's service to our Nation, he earned awards and decorations, including: the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal with two bronze oakleaf clusters, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal with one bronze oakleaf, Army Achievement Medal with three bronze oakleaf clusters, Iraq Campaign Medial with one Bronze Campaign Star, and Combat Action Badge.

On behalf of my colleagues and the entire U.S. Senate, I want to personally thank Brigadier General Wilham and his family for over three decades of selfless service to the State of Oklahoma and the United States of America. He will leave a legacy of leadership and integrity that will remain with the Oklahoma National Guard for many years to come. I wish Brigadier General Wilham, his wife Jodi and their daughters, Taylor and Shelby, the very best as he retires from military service.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, for the Committee on Armed Services I report favorably the following nomination lists which were printed in the Records on the dates indicated, and ask unanimous consent, to save the expense of reprinting on the Executive Calendar that these nominations lie at the Secretary's desk for the information of Senators.

Mr. President, today I wish to recognize and congratulate RADM James T. Loeblein of the U.S. Navy on his outstanding service to our Nation as the Navy's Chief of Legislative Affairs from January 2017 to July 2019. During these 2 years, a period best described as one of constant change, he deftly led his team to execute with a lasting legacy of ``precision and style.''

Jim Loeblein was the Navy's lead advocate on Capitol Hill and had the challenging job of communicating with all 535 Members of Congress. He expertly handled our constituent inquiries and represented the Navy while balancing military, political, and budgetary priorities. His naval service is a lasting reminder that the United States remains the strongest maritime nation.

Rear Admiral Loeblein selflessly devoted the last 2 and a half years of his naval service ensuring our Nation's sailors were taken care of and represented faithfully in Congress. Specifically, Jim brilliantly led the response to the salient issues of this period: aircraft carrier purchases and overhauls, submarine procurement timelines, the rise of cyber warfare, the quality of on-base military housing--and the list goes on. Jim excelled in this role with his hallmark ``precision and style.''

Because of Jim's professionalism and friendly personality, he established warm and lasting relationships with our colleagues, garnering respect and admiration in both Chambers of Congress and on both sides of the aisle. He worked with us to broaden the Navy's outreach beyond those members of defense committees. Jim's efforts, along with those of the Chief of Naval Operations, introduced the Navy to Senators who would not otherwise have had exposure to the great work our sailors are doing around the globe.

On behalf of my colleagues and the entire U.S. Senate, I want to personally thank RADM Jim Loeblein for his more than three decades of dedicated service to the Navy and our nation. He will be certainly missed. I also want to thank his wife Carol for her sacrifice during her own time in the Navy and for her continued, tremendous support to her husband. I wish them fair winds and following seas in his post- naval career, and I sincerely look forward to seeing him again in the future.

Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, first of all, let me associate myself with the remarks of the Senator from Iowa.

It is so important for all of us, particularly those of us who have had occasion to serve, to really pay attention to what is going on. This is Military Appreciation Month, and it is very significant, what is going on. Every month should be Military Appreciation.

As the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and as a veteran, it is my great honor and responsibility to support our warfighters during and after their service.

Whenever they were needed, they were there, and so we have to do a better job in supporting them. We went through 8 years of not adequately supporting the military, and it is something that many of them are suffering from now.

Now, next week, as it was pointed out, we are going to do the Defense authorization bill. It is not very often you can stand here and say we are going to introduce a bill, and we know it is going to pass. The reason we know it is going to pass is because it has passed for the last 58 years. So this one is going to pass.

I can remember a few years that we actually had to go into September to get the Defense authorization bill passed. In the event it got to the end of December, and the same thing would be true this coming year, then we would have hazard pay that wouldn't be paid, and we would have flight pay that wouldn't be paid. There would not be adequate funding to take care of any of that.

So we can't let that happen, and we are not going to let it happen.

I am a little confused now because a month from today we will actually mark up that bill in the U.S. Senate. Yet the House isn't going to do it, it is my understanding, until the middle of June.

Then I also heard that they may, over in the House, actually do the appropriations bill first.

Well, if you do the appropriations bill before you do the bill we will be marking up, the NDAA, then there is no reason to even do the NDAA from the House perspective.

So we do know that good things are going to happen. We are going to implement the national defense strategy. We have talked about the national defense strategy several times on the floor and on how we have done, I think, a very good job in putting this together. Most importantly, we are supporting our All-Volunteer Force.

I may be the last person on the Senate Armed Service Committee who still believes in compulsory service.

I often wonder what would have happened in my life if I hadn't been drafted. I always remember coming back at Christmastime, Eisenhower was President, and I was enrolled at the University of Mexico, and I looked in the mailbox and there was a card. It was from the President, and I thought how nice of the President to remember me at Christmastime. It was my draft notice. So that changed my plans, and I often wonder where I would be today if I hadn't had that experience.

We are going to provide the Armed Forces with adequate funding, and I hope we will find a budget solution. We can't do it with a continuing resolution. We have asked all of our leaders in the hearings what would happen to us if we did a continuing resolution, and it just wouldn't work. I think we all realize that.

It puts people who are budget hawks, like me, and military hawks in a very awkward situation because we have a situation where, as a result of the 8 years of Obama, we have a thing called parity so that for every dollar you put in the military, there has to be a dollar that goes to the nondefense programs. This is something that doesn't work. So the continuing resolution, we all know, is something that should not be an option.

The responsibility carries a great weight now. We ask our men and women in uniform to do more in the face of danger and more in a dangerous and unpredictable world than at any time.

I think the Trump administration is right. They try to categorize the two threats that are out there, one being the threat of the rogue nations that are out there, and we are talking about North Korea and some of these other nations. At the same time, we also have the major threat of the great power threat, and this is one we face, and we know that. Yes, we are used to dealing with the threats of the rogue nations, but after the 8 years of the Obama administration, we watched Russia and China forge ahead of us in many areas. Hypersonic weapons are a good example, and that is something that is taking place now.

So during that period of time, during the last 5 years of the Obama administration, the amount of money that we had to run our military with was reduced by almost 25 percent. Now, we have made up a lot of this in fiscal year 2018 and in fiscal year 2019, thanks to the Trump administration. We have increased that funding back up to $700 billion, then again $716 billion, and this time I think we are going to be at $750 billion.

There is some dispute as to what the exact figure will be, but nonetheless we have started to rebuild. So we will be modernizing our forces, including our nuclear arsenal now, in order to maintain our military superiority--or to regain is a better word than maintain because we have actually lost some of our superiority--well into the future. Our Armed Forces have long been the best in the world, but we have problems now in trying to rebuild, and that is what this is all about.

So we will support our troops and their families who sacrifice a great deal to protect our Nation. This includes making meaningful reforms to privatize on-base housing. We went through this housing trauma just the other day. We found out a lot of people are not being treated properly. A lot of the spouses of our members and our members are living in housing that is totally unacceptable, but we came to that realization and we are correcting that now and that is going to be corrected even further in the Defense authorization bill that we will mark up a week from today.

So we want to thank every man and woman who ever put on a uniform and those who are doing this in defense of the country, congratulate them and pay particular attention to them and support them in every way we can.

The fabric of our Nation is stronger because of the guys in uniform and those who have been in uniform, and we will endure for the years to come because of their service. God bless all of the men and women in uniform.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, today I wish to honor Lieutenant Colonel Richard ``Dick'' Cole, of the United States Air Force, who was the last living link of the Doolittle Raiders and passed away on April 9 at the age of 103. The Doolittle Raiders were comprised of 80 heroic U.S. Army Air Forces airmen who flew 16 modified B-25 Mitchell bombers off the USS Hornet aircraft carrier on the first Allied retaliatory strike on the Japanese Home Islands, just a few months after Pearl Harbor.

In an age before midair refueling and GPS, the USS Hornet weighed less than a quarter of today's fortress-like aircraft carriers. With then-Lt. Cole as the copilot to then-Lt. Col. Jimmy

Doolittle, the B-25 Mitchell bomber #40-2344, would take off with only 467 feet of takeoff distance. This audacious and unprecedented raid was a one-way mission against enormous odds. What made the mission all the more challenging was a sighting by a Japanese patrol boat that prompted the task force commander, U.S. Navy Adm. William Halsey, to launch the mission more than 650 nautical miles from Japan, 10 hours early and 170 nautical miles farther than originally planned. Flying at wavetop level around 200 feet with their radios turned off, Cole and the Raiders avoided detection for as much of the distance as possible. In groups of two to four aircraft, the bombers targeted dry docks, armories, oil refineries, and aircraft factories in Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe, as well as Tokyo itself. The Japanese air defenses were so caught off guard by the Raiders that little anti-aircraft fire was volleyed and only one Japanese Zero followed in pursuit. With their bombs delivered, the Raiders flew towards safety in nonoccupied China, but had to bail out when their aircraft ran out of fuel.

The bombing mission sent a message that America was ready to fight back, and bolstered spirits on the home front. Lt. Col. Cole remained in the China-Burma-India Theater flying combat and transport missions from May 1942 to June 1943, followed by service with the 5th Fighter Group in Tulsa, OK, from June to October 1943. He retired from the Air Force on December 31, 1966, as a command pilot with more than 5,000 flight hours in 30 different aircraft, amassing more than 250 combat missions and more than 500 combat hours. His decorations include the Distinguished Flying Cross with two oakleaf clusters; Air Medal with oakleaf cluster; Bronze Star Medal; Air Force Commendation Medal; and Chinese Army, Navy, Air Corps Medal, Class A, First Grade. All Doolittle Raiders were also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in May 2014.

In his final years, Lt. Col. Cole remained a familiar face at Air Force events in the San Antonio area and toured Air Force schoolhouses and installations to promote the spirit of service among new generations of airmen. On September 19, 2016, Lt. Col. Cole was present during the naming ceremony for the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider, named in honor of the Doolittle Raiders. While he may have slipped the surly bonds of earth to reunite with his fellow Raiders, his legacy will forever live on in the hearts and minds of Americans.

On behalf of my colleagues in the U.S. Senate, I wish to offer our eternal thanks to Lt. Col. Cole and our condolences to his family. May we never forget the courage and honor of the Doolittle Raiders.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, Senator Reed and I are today introducing, by request, the Administration's proposed National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020. As is the case with any bill that is introduced by request, we introduce this bill for the purpose of placing the Administration's proposals before Congress and the public without expressing our own views on the substance of these proposals. As Chairman and Ranking Member of the Armed Services Committee, we look forward

to giving the Administration's requested legislation our most careful review and thoughtful consideration.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, for the Committee on Armed Services I report favorably the following nomination lists which were printed in the Records on the dates indicated, and ask unanimous consent, to save the expense of reprinting on the Executive Calendar that these nominations lie at the Secretary's desk for the information of Senators.

Mr. President, today I wish to recognize and pay tribute to United States Army 1LT Kate M. Kientz, a proud Oklahoman who is currently serving her country in Kosovo. I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with Lieutenant Kientz back in February during a congressional delegation trip to the region, and I was proud to see a strong Oklahoman such as herself representing our State and our country so well. I would like to express my sincere thanks for the excellent work of Lieutenant Kientz in advancing the mission in Europe. Her dedication to duty is instrumental to prepare ready forces, ensure strategic access, deter conflict, enable the NATO alliance, strengthen partnerships, and counter transnational threats in order to protect and defend the United States.

Lieutenant Kientz was raised in my home city of Tulsa, OK, and attended Bishop Kelley High School. She continued her education at the University of Oklahoma and graduated in 2017 with a degree in political science and letters. Following graduation, she interned at the Oklahoma House of Representatives and participated in Reserve Officers' Training Corps exchanges in Beijing and Slovakia. These experiences were the foundation of a strong background that prepared her for a successful career in military intelligence.

As of January 2018, Lieutenant Kientz has been the chemical officer and S4 in charge of logistics in the 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment. She arrived in Kosovo in October of 2018 and plans to then finish her time as a lieutenant at Fort Drum before transitioning into military intelligence.

Meeting Lieutenant Kientz in Kosovo had an impact on me and reassured me that the next generation is in great hands with leaders such as herself. On behalf of Congress and the United States of America, I thank 1LT Kate M. Kientz and her family for their commitment, sacrifice, and contribution to our great Nation. I join my colleagues in wishing her future success in all aspects of life as she continues to serve as a role model for service, sacrifice, and leadership.

Mr. President, thank you for the opportunity to recognize a titan of defense thinking, Andrew Marshall, who passed away at the age of 97 on March 26, 2019.

Mr. Marshall was the founding father of the Department of Defense's Office of Net Assessment. From its creation, he served as its director for over four decades, leaving an indelible mark on our defense institutions. He finally retired in 2015, at the age of 93.

In his role, he piloted rigorous analysis of critical national security issues, rooted in his unparalleled institutional knowledge. This is why he was often called the `Yoda' of the Pentagon.

His groundbreaking work shaped how the Department of Defense responds to long-term challenges and paved the way for a nimbler, more modern force.

Despite its relatively small budget, the Office of Net Assessment has had an outsized impact on military thinking. In particular, he foresaw the threats posed by the then-Soviet Union and, more recently, China.

Mr. Marshall's legacy goes beyond strategic thinking. He also trained the next generation of defense analysts, including the current Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, ensuring his knowledge lasts into the future.

Our Nation is more secure because of Mr. Marshall's important work. We owe a great deal of debt to him, and I am thankful for the opportunity to commemorate him today.