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Floor Speech

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Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, I rise today to ask the Senate to confirm Ron Keohane to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs.

In this role, Mr. Keohane will be the principal adviser to the Secretary of Defense on all matters relating to the civilian and military personnel policies. He is extremely well-qualified for this role, previously serving as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy.

We need someone with Mr. Keohane's sense of experience to oversee and develop policies to support our servicemembers and their families, as well as to oversee our DOD schools. Strong leadership is also essential to address our military recruiting crisis.

I recently held a hearing in my subcommittee, which the Senator from North Carolina attended, that identified a long list of areas where our military services can continue to step up to inspire more young people to serve. They need someone like Mr. Keohane to make sure that the services actually follow through.

No one is disputing Mr. Keohane's qualifications. The Senate Armed Services Committee voted unanimously to advance his nomination. The only reason that Mr. Keohane's nomination has not already been approved is because the Senator from North Carolina is willing to play politics with our national defense.

As we all know by now, the Senator from North Carolina disagrees with the Department of Defense's policy to help members of the military and their families access healthcare, specifically reproductive healthcare. Republican Senators claim they wanted a vote on DOD's policy on abortion; but just this week, they lost a vote to move forward toward overturning that policy. So if they can't get it on a straight-up vote, they are now blocking Mr. Keohane out of spite.

Last week, after months of undermining our national security, the Senator from Alabama backed down with nothing to show for his nearly yearlong blockade of promotions for hundreds of senior military officials--nothing to show, that is, except for the long-term damage he inflicted on our military personnel, on their families, and on our military readiness.

So now the Senator from North Carolina is stopping well-qualified nominees. He has no specific objection to this nominee. In fact, the Senator serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee that unanimously advanced Mr. Keohane's nomination. But the Senator from North Carolina now blocks the confirmation of Mr. Keohane.

We need leaders at the Department of Defense. Blocking these confirmations is corrosive to our national security.

Our Nation cannot continue to hold key national security officials hostage. We must put the safety and well-being of our servicemembers first. Our greatest strength as a nation is our people, and we need a confirmed leader like Mr. Keohane to make sure that our servicemembers have everything they need to succeed.

109, Ronald T. Keohane, of New York, to be an Assistant Secretary of Defense; that the Senate vote on the nomination without intervening action or debate; and that, if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

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Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, I think what the Senator from North Carolina has just said is he doesn't like the abortion policy that the Department of Defense has adopted.

He is right. It is a new policy. It is a policy that was made necessary because an extremist Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs opinion and forced the military to have to decide how to deal with access to healthcare, access to abortions for people who were now involuntarily stationed in States where that care was no longer available.

The Senator, and all of the Republicans, were offered a vote on the Department of Defense's policy. And we voted just this week on a measure that would move toward that vote. And it failed. In other words, the Republicans who oppose this policy simply don't have the votes.

So instead of yielding to the will of the majority and letting this policy go through without a problem, instead, they play politics with the people who are trying to serve our Nation.

That Mr. Keohane gets caught in this--someone who is willing to serve our Nation and, most importantly, right now, to help our servicemembers live their best opportunities in the military at a time when we are having recruiting challenges, is just putting politics ahead of the defense of the United States; it is putting politics ahead of our servicemembers and putting politics ahead of our servicemembers' families.

I think this is fundamentally wrong. They had a vote; they lost; they don't like it; and they are holding Mr. Keohane just out of spite.

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