Nomination of Barbara McConnell Barrett

Floor Speech

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Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, a few weeks ago, I had an opportunity to come to the floor and talk about the outstanding public service of some senior U.S. marines: Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Secretary of Homeland Security General Kelly, and the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Joseph Dunford. The service these gentlemen have given to their Nation includes almost 140 years of combined Active-Duty military service in the Marine Corps but also at the highest levels of government at a critical time in our Nation's history.

Men and women who are committed to the service of our Nation are continuing to follow in the footsteps of these three very impressive U.S. Marine generals who brought the Marine Corps ethos of honor, courage, and commitment to our Nation's military and to their work in government. We should all be thankful for that.

At the end of September, I had the privilege of attending the swearing-in of a member of the new team that President Trump is putting together in terms of national security, GEN Mark Milley, as the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, now in the position succeeding General Dunford. At the Department of Defense, we have Secretary Esper, Secretary McCarthy, the Secretary of the Army, and General Milley who have all served their country with honor and will continue to do so.

Now we are considering the nomination of Ambassador Barbara Barrett to be the next Secretary of the Air Force. In fact, we are going to be voting on her nomination in a few moments.

I want to talk about her experience and her qualifications, which are diverse and very impressive. I think she is extremely well qualified to be the next Secretary of the U.S. Air Force.

Let me provide just a bit about her background and exceptional experience. She is a private pilot, astronaut, Deputy Federal Aviation Administrator, past CEO of the Aerospace Corporation, past member of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services and Defense Business Board. Importantly, she is a former U.S. Ambassador to Finland. That is a very impressive resume, a very impressive background.

I first met Ambassador Barrett in 2015 when I had the opportunity to share dinner with her and the late Senator John McCain. Prior to that dinner, I was talking to Senator John McCain, and he told me how highly he thought of Ambassador Barrett. I can state--and I think many of my Senate colleagues will agree--that there can be no better an endorsement than that from Senator McCain.

Ambassador Barrett will be taking over from Dr. Heather Wilson, who did an outstanding job as Secretary of the Air Force. Secretary Wilson's leadership was critical in rebuilding the U.S. Air Force, which had shrunk to its smallest level ever just a few years ago since the Air Force was created in the late 1940s. We had to start bringing it back. She did a great job on that, and I know Ambassador Barrett is committed to continuing that rebuilding of this critically important branch of our military.

Another important element of Ambassador Barrett's experience is that as a former U.S. Ambassador to Finland, she understands the strategic importance of the Arctic and what is happening in terms of great power competition in the Arctic.

I want to spend a few minutes talking about that critically important part of the world and the role of my State, the great State of Alaska. Dating back to Gen. Billy Mitchell, who is the father of the U.S. Air Force, Alaska has been recognized as what General Mitchell said in an Armed Services Committee hearing; that it is ``the most strategic place in the world.'' Former Secretary Wilson and our current Chief of the Staff of the Air Force, General Goldfein, have been leaders at the Department of Defense, raising awareness of the critical importance of the Arctic in defending America's national security interests. Additionally, Congress has been playing a role in highlighting this in our national security priorities in the National Defense Authorization Act over the last 3 years and so, too, has the Trump administration.

Secretary Pompeo, our Secretary of State, was recently in Finland for the Arctic Council, all the nations of the Arctic, and he had this to say:

We are entering a new age of strategic engagement in the Arctic, complete with new threats to the Arctic and its real estate. . . . This is America's moment to stand up as an Arctic nation and for the Arctic's future.

That was our Secretary of State a few months ago in Finland.

America is an Arctic nation because of Alaska. I like to say that my State constitutes three pillars of America's military might. We are the cornerstone of missile defense for the entire Nation--the missile fields and the radar sites that protect Washington, DC, New York, Miami, Rhode Island, L.A. They are all based in the great State of Alaska. We are the hub of air combat power for the Arctic in the Asia- Pacific.

In the next 2 years, we are going to have over 100 fifth-generation fighters, F-35s and F-22s, stationed in Alaska. No place on Earth will have that kind of combat power with those critical fifth-generation supersonic stealth fighters. We have a platform for expeditionary forces--some of our best trained military units--to be able to deploy on a moment's notice because we are so strategically located to other countries.

Because of Alaska's strategic role in defending America's interests in the Arctic and the Indo-Pacific, the Congress and this administration, together in a bipartisan way, have been building up each of these three critical pillars of our Nation's military might and defenses.

Let me give just one example. The Senate has been pushing lately to ensure that the air combat capability we have in Alaska is matched by air refueling capacity. The last three National Defense Authorization Acts passed by this body and signed by the President have established criteria that the Air Force needs to use when deciding where to base the next modern aerial refueling tanker platform, the KC-46.

Ambassador Barrett and I have discussed this issue and what the Air Force is going to do with regard to stationing of the KC-46 outside of the continental United States, and I look forward to working with her on the advice already provided to the administration from the Congress on where those military assets need to be based.

As the current Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, said in his confirmation hearing, having KC-46s colocated with 100 fifth-generation fighters would give America ``extreme strategic reach'' anywhere in the world. I believe Ambassador Barrett also understands this, and she clearly understands the importance of the Arctic as a former ambassador to Finland.

So, as I mentioned at the outset, we need good people and highly qualified people to serve at the highest levels of our military, civilian and uniformed, and I believe Ambassador Barrett is certainly one of those individuals.

I was heartened to see that my colleagues in the Senate gave a very strong bipartisan cloture vote, 84 to 7, which shows very strong support for her nomination. I know we are going to vote in a couple of minutes. I encourage my colleagues to vote yes for her nomination to be the next U.S. Secretary of the Air Force.

Vote on Barrett Nomination
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