National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. ERNST. Thank you, Mr. President.

I would like to thank my colleagues here today who are joining in this colloquy. We have the junior Senators from Alaska and Montana, and we hoped to be joined by the junior Senator from North Carolina as well.

As I stand here today, my brothers and sisters in arms are deployed overseas. Regardless of what the President tells us, our servicemembers are at war. They are in combat, and their combat boots are on the ground.

I think our colleagues across the aisle have forgotten that as they continue to filibuster our Defense appropriations bill. We have men and women serving overseas. They are serving for us overseas. They also seem to have forgotten that all of those servicemembers are paying attention. I know because I was once one of those servicemembers deployed overseas, paying attention to the actions of the folks here in Washington.

Right now our servicemembers are watching the minority leader, and our enemies are watching just as closely.

This bill appropriates $515.9 billion for our national security, and $900 million of this funding is for the National Guard, a critical arm to the security of the United States, where I served for 23-plus years.

My National Guard unit is in the Middle East right now. My Iowa Army National Guard unit, the unit that I commanded as a battalion commander, is serving in the Middle East right now.

The minority leader doesn't care about their safety while they selflessly serve to ensure ours. He doesn't care that this bill has funding for equipment critical to their mission. He doesn't care that their families are depending on them to come home safely, and he doesn't care that his actions once again make America look weak. The minority party is filibustering this bipartisan Defense appropriations bill solely at the expense of our men and women in uniform. Those are the facts on the ground today.

I know the importance of this bill firsthand, and I stand here today ready to vote in favor of it, and I know my colleagues understand that as well.

Once again, I want to thank the Members that are joining us in this colloquy today: the junior Senators from Alaska, Montana, and North Carolina. I know this is a very important issue to all of us.

With that, I would like to turn to the junior Senator from Alaska, who also is a fellow in arms, Lt. Col. Dan Sullivan, U.S. Marine Corps, to hear his comments.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. ERNST. Mr. President, I yield back my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source