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Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, today this Senate will confirm John Ratcliffe to be the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. This is a win for our national security. Frankly, this should have been done 2 day ago, but Democrats unnecessarily delayed this important vote.

John Ratcliffe is undeniably qualified for the job. He is going to lead the CIA without bias and with the safety of the American people being his top priority.

Once the Senate confirms John Ratcliffe, we will move to consider the nomination of Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense. America needs a strong, intimidating, and lethal military. Our men and women in uniform, they want to serve in that kind of a military. They didn't join to be joining a safe space or a faculty lounge. They volunteered to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces, the greatest fighting force in human history.

Our Nation is counting on President Trump and our military to defend America and to restore peace through strength. The problem is our servicemembers are trapped in a broken system with misguided values.

Today, we face the most serious significant recruiting and morale crisis since the creation of the all-volunteer military. The military, in 2023, missed its recruiting goals by almost 40,000 people. The Pentagon says that they met their goals in 2024. You know how they did that? They conveniently lowered the goals from the 2023 number. Easy to make the mark when you lower the bar.

According to the Department of Defense, more than half of all young Americans say they have never ever thought of serving in our Nation's military.

In addition to the recruiting problem and the morale problem, we also, at the Pentagon today, have an accountability problem. The Department of Defense last month failed its seventh audit in a row. We need to change course at the Pentagon. We need to get the Pentagon back on track, and President Trump has selected Pete Hegseth to do just that.

As Pete said at his hearing last week:

We don't need more bureaucracy at the top. We need more warfighters empowered at the bottom.

As a decorated combat veteran, Pete brings a fresh set of eyes to the Pentagon. He is confident. He is knowledgeable, and he is courageous. He knows the cost of war, and he knows the price of weakness. He clearly loves our Nation. He loves this country. He is a champion for our servicemembers and their families, and he wants to continue serving the country.

That is why I believe Pete Hegseth is the right choice to lead our military.

At the Senate Armed Services Committee, Pete answered hard questions with clarity and with resolve. Pete was clear about our mission and his mission. It is, as he said, to make the Pentagon ``laser-focused on lethality, meritocracy, warfighting, accountability and readiness.''

Ultimately, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted in favor of Pete's nomination. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough for the Democrats. No, no, they decided to then run their desperate playbook of distract and delay so that they could try to search and destroy.

Senate Republicans are not going to be stopped by Democrats' political games. We are moving forward.

Perhaps no other Cabinet position is more important to the safety and security of our Nation than the Secretary of Defense. The American people deserve to have a Secretary of Defense in place and on the job.

Now, Mr. President, on a related matter, on confirmation here, our work in confirmation continues and it will continue later today. Senate Republicans are readying votes on more of President Trump's nominees, and it is a strong roster.

Kristi Noem is the nominee to be Secretary of Homeland Security. She will secure our borders.

Scott Bessent is the nominee to be Secretary of the Treasury. He will strengthen our economy and stop the Democrats' $4 trillion tax increase.

Sean Duffy is the nominee to be Secretary of Transportation. He will build our Nation's crumbling infrastructure. The Commerce Committee was unanimous in support of his nomination.

In fact, all of these well-qualified nominees received bipartisan support in committees. The Senate has an obligation to confirm them quickly. To deny a President his Cabinet is wrong, especially when we are talking about the national security team. Any delay denies our Nation a Homeland Security Secretary when open borders endanger every community in America. It denies the country a Treasury Secretary at a time when painfully high prices are hurting families and hurting small businesses. It denies the country a Secretary of Transportation when our ports and our airlines need urgent attention.

The President deserves to have his team in place, and Senate Republicans will overcome the roadblocks, and we will confirm them. The choice for Democrats is simple: the easy way or the hard way.

Mr. President, we are going to get them confirmed.

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