Disapproving A Rule Submitted By the Department of Labor

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, we will be voting on something known around here as the fiduciary rule, which the Senator from New Jersey just spoke on, and later we will be voting on inspection of catfish.

Now, people might wonder, as significant as those two issues are, why we are not dealing with the Defense authorization bill that Senator McCain has been pressing our Democratic friends to allow us to get started with. For my money, there is simply nothing more important for the Congress to do than to make sure our men and women in uniform have the support and the resources and the training they need in order to fight our Nation's fights and win our Nation's wars. But because of the objection of the Democratic leader yesterday, here we are.

I have to say to my friend, the Senator from New Jersey, talking in support of this fiduciary rule that was created by Dodd-Frank, to me, this just exemplifies this paternalism which has typified this administration when dealing with the economy. They don't actually believe consumers know how to make good choices for themselves, so they are going to force a Federal regulation and rule and a one-size-fits- all standard on the financial services industry.

I have to say that I don't think it is any coincidence that our economy grew at one half of 1 percent last quarter. That is pathetic economic growth, and it is simply not fast enough for our economy to create jobs in order to allow people to work full time instead of part time and for those who have left the labor force to join the labor force and to provide for their families and pursue their dreams. But it is unfortunately typical of the regulatory approach of the Obama administration, which I think helps strangle the economy and economic recovery.

Economists and many people much more knowledgeable than I have said that after the 2008 fiscal crisis, we should have seen a bounce, a V- shaped bounce. We hit bottom; we should have bounced back up. Unfortunately, we have been at a very flat recovery--if you can call it much of a recovery--since 2008, primarily because people are in doubt whether their plans for small business, medium-sized business, or large business, for that matter, will be put in political peril because of the uncertainty of the regulatory approach of the Obama administration. That is why we need to disapprove this fiduciary rule and to get the government out of the way, particularly when it comes to people who choose their own financial advisers. It is just another example of the wet blanket the regulatory approach of the Obama administration has been on the economy in general--just one small example.

As I said at the outset, we should be talking about the national defense authorization bill, which passed out of the Armed Services Committee with overwhelming bipartisan support. Only three members of the Armed Services Committee voted against it. But rather than be debating that, here we are.

We should be talking about and voting on the Defense authorization bill because of obviously how important it is to our country's safety and security. As I mentioned, it provides our military the funding and authorities they need in order to protect and defend us, and it ensures that our warfighters are equipped for success on the battlefield.

The President's senior adviser, Ms. Valerie Jarrett, claimed recently that President Obama had ended two wars and that this was part of his legacy. I am wondering which wars she was referring to because, frankly, the world is on fire. The Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, has said that never in his long career--and I think it goes back 50 years or more--in the intelligence community has he seen a more diverse and a more threatening environment. We know we have conventional threats like a newly emboldened Vladimir Putin threatening Europe and the NATO alliance there. Then we have terrorist groups like ISIS, the Islamic State, which has morphed from Al Qaeda--the radical religious ideology which has told them that in the name of their religion, they can murder innocent men, women, and children.

A few weeks ago I had the chance to travel with some of my colleagues from the House side to visit some of our troops stationed in the Middle East. It was obviously an honor to visit with those serving our country so selflessly in remote parts of the world, where they are separated from their families and putting service to country above self. We had a chance to visit the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and the Multinational Force & Observers, the MFO, an international peacekeeping group at the North Camp in the Sinai Peninsula. Quite a few members of the Texas National Guard served there until they ended their tour just recently. In meeting with those folks on the ground and learning more about the situation, one thing is clear: The Middle East continues to be a region racked by instability and violence at every turn.

I have previously spoken about how the imprudent drawdown of U.S. troops in Iraq without getting a status of forces agreement, which would have allowed a larger U.S. presence there, much as we had after the war in Germany, in Japan, and elsewhere, where we frankly have seen thriving economies and stable countries spring up after the wake of terrible wars--unfortunately, President Obama did not see that as a priority. And because of the precipitous drawdown in Iraq, a power vacuum was left.

If there is one thing we should have learned on 9/11, it is that power vacuums are breeding grounds for terrorists, and that is as true today as it was back then.

So now the Islamic State--the latest iteration of Islamic extremism-- has carved out a safe haven in Iraq and Syria, virtually wiping off the map the border between those two countries, and it continues to grow in north Africa and the Middle East. The terrorist group's influence in the region couldn't be clearer.

As I mentioned, on the Sinai Peninsula, I had a chance to visit with some of our soldiers about the threats they face from ISIS-affiliated groups every day, including the use of improvised explosive devices by some of the groups who have now pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.

Back in March, it was reported that an ISIS-linked group killed more than a dozen of Egypt's security forces in the Sinai, and unfortunately that carnage continues.

There is no doubt that ISIS is continuing to work against U.S. interests and against our allies, targeting not only Egyptian forces in this instance but, at times, U.S. forces on the ground as well.

Unfortunately, ISIS has taken advantage of a power vacuum left in Libya after the President led a coalition to topple Libyan strongman Muammar Qadhafi and unfortunately created another power vacuum there which continues to this day. We would have thought we would have learned something from our experience in Iraq, but apparently President Obama did not because he had no real plan for a post-Qadhafi Libya, no plan and no strategy in place on how to move forward afterward. As I said, now Libya is a failed state and a breeding ground for ISIS.

In Tunisia, we actually had the chance to visit with the U.S. Ambassador to Libya. Unfortunately, as the Ambassador and his country team said, we haven't actually been to Libya. They are literally an embassy in exile in Tunisia but doing the best they can to try to figure a way forward in Libya.

One thing we know for sure is that Libya plays host to an increasing number of ISIS fighters. Some even estimate that the ranks of ISIS have doubled in Libya in the past year alone. Left unchecked, this ISIS safe haven in Libya, a country which is obviously strategically located across the Mediterranean from Europe, where it is pretty easy passage up into the EU, movement around the EU and then in countries--38 countries in total have visa waiver agreements with the United States, and people can travel to the United States from those countries without a visa. But this jumping-off point in Libya to Europe and then to other places is a real threat and provides another base from which ISIS can continue to terrorize and target the United States and our friends and partners.

As I mentioned, we were able to travel to Tunisia and visit with the relatively newly democratically elected President there. Tunisia touts itself as one of the rare success stories of the Arab spring--maybe the only success story--but their hold on the country is enormously fragile, primarily because the terrorist threat has killed the tourist activity that has been part of the economic lifeblood of that beautiful country right on the Mediterranean Sea in north Africa. Unfortunately, Tunisia is seeing an influx of its own citizens traveling to Libya to join ISIS, and today Tunisia remains one of the major sources of foreign fighters for this terrorist army.

After its campaign of rape and genocide against the Yazidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims, ISIS continues to expand across north Africa and the Middle East, all the while working against U.S. interests, not only in the region by inciting violence and terrorist attacks but also in Europe and in places like San Bernardino, CA.

Of course, our military serves in dangerous places all over the world, as do other people who bravely serve in a civilian capacity with our intelligence community and others. Today the threats extend all the way from an aggressive Russia, as I mentioned earlier, to NATO's doorstep, to an increasingly belligerent China in the South China Sea-- a topic the President, no doubt, is discussing during his visit in Hanoi--and then there are the repeated unchecked provocations of North Korea. These are all areas marked by volatility and unpredictability.

Given these threats, given this danger, given this need, we would think there would be bipartisan support for doing our work here and actually debating and voting on the Defense authorization bill.

The bottom line is that our military men and women must be prepared for all potential contingencies, and the Defense authorization bill is our chance here in Congress to make sure they have the training and equipment to do just that.

It is pretty clear that the administration's disengagement around the world over the last 7 years has not been working, and I have been saying that for some time. But the Defense authorization bill we will move to tomorrow is an opportunity for Congress to provide for our troops to the greatest extent possible and ensure that they are ready to face all of these threats. The Defense authorization bill would authorize resources to fight ISIS and to counter Russian aggression and shore up U.S. and NATO capabilities.

As we begin this debate and discussion, let's keep at the forefront of the conversation the men and women who are out there in harm's way facing these myriad of threats, separated many times from their family and their community and their friends, and let's work in good faith to get this bipartisan bill passed as soon as we can.

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