Motion to Discharge--S. Res. 195
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, the nominees I will discuss today were approved by the Armed Services Committee with bipartisan support. Republicans and Democrats agreed they are qualified and ready to serve. President Trump was elected in a landslide, and the American people expect and deserve our support in getting his agenda accomplished.
President Trump and his administration are working incredibly hard to bring back the U.S. policy of peace through strength and to ensure our military is a respected and lethal fighting force. This is not an easy task after President Biden's weakness allowed our enemies free rein while our military leadership was distracted with being woke.
President Trump needs his full team in place to deliver on his agenda to restore our Nation's military to focus on the warfighter.
To that end, I ask that we move to consider the following nominees: First, I will ask we consider Dale Marks to be an Assistant Secretary of Defense.
Mr. Marks is a former fighter pilot and combat-wounded veteran. After his distinguished military career, he continued service in a civilian capacity, where he rose through the ranks of Senior Executive Service. He is currently serving as Executive Director of the 96th Test Wing, Air Force Materiel Command at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
The position he is nominated for is essential to ensure our military installations remain strong, our energy policies support mission success, and our environmental strategies enhance, not hinder, operational readiness and support peace through strength.
I urge the Democrats to drop their misplaced stall tactics and allow for his immediate confirmation.
109, Dale Marks, to be an Assistant Secretary of Defense; that the Senate vote on the nomination without intervening action or debate; that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; and that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate resume legislative session.
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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I am not sure I understand my colleague's objections. These are well-qualified nominees. They enjoy bipartisan support. There are several more nominees waiting. It is obvious, my colleagues across the aisle will do everything they can to undermine President Trump's agenda and delay these nominees.
Next, I would like to consider Keith Bass to be Assistant Secretary of Defense. Mr. Bass is a retired U.S. Navy commander. He is also a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives, the National Rehabilitation Association, the American Counseling Association, and the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors.
Prior to nomination, Mr. Bass served as the Medical Center Director for the West Texas VA Health Care System. The role Mr. Bass has been nominated to oversee is a Military Health System that has 9.6 million beneficiaries entitled to care. The military health system is currently undergoing many reforms to improve efficiency, increase readiness, and deliver better care. I urge my colleagues to allow for his immediate confirmation.
70, Keith Bass, to be an Assistant Secretary of Defense; that the Senate vote on the nomination without intervening action or debate; that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; and that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate resume legislative session.
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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, the President deserves his national security nominees today. Let me see if we will consider this one: Brandon Williams to be Under Secretary for Nuclear Security, Military Health System.
Mr. Williams is a nuclear submarine officer. During his service, he made six strategic deterrence patrols, was a nuclear weapons safety officer, nuclear weapons security officer, and nuclear weapons radiological control officer. He is pretty competent.
This role is responsible for the maintenance of a safe, secure, and reliable nuclear stockpile.
Confirmation is critical to President Trump's ``peace through strength and strategic deterrence'' agenda. Hopefully, my colleague will see the wisdom in allowing this confirmation--this individual who is clearly qualified to be confirmed today.
107, Brandon Williams, to be Under Secretary for Nuclear Security; that the Senate vote on the nomination without intervening action or debate; that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; and that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate resume legislative session.
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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, one final ask. I hope my colleagues can agree that we have at least one critical nominee today approved.
Let's consider Bradley Hansell to be Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security.
Mr. Hansell is a former Green Beret, Senior Director on the National Security Council staff, and has previously received bipartisan support. He will be responsible to exercise the Secretary of Defense's authority, direction, and control over the DIA, NGA, NSA, NRO, and the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. His confirmation is critical to the President's ``peace through strength'' agenda.
I, once again, urge my colleague to allow for the nominee's immediate confirmation.
108, Bradley Hansell, to be Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security; that the Senate vote on the nomination without intervening action or debate; that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action; and that the Senate resume legislative session.
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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. At some point, this has got to change. We have Presidential elections every 4 years. Our President got elected. President Trump got elected, whether people like it or not. He deserves an opportunity to put his team together and act as the President and put his agenda in place.
This idea that both parties sit here and delay nominees and the ability to put teams together doesn't make any sense for the future of this country. This is not a time that there is no risk in the world, and so, at some point, we are going to all have to come together to start accelerating this. We have so many nominees. Whether it is a Republican or a Democrat President, we have got to allow these nominees to get through and get confirmed in a much more expedited manner. Otherwise, none of our Presidents are ever going to get in a position that they can ever put a team together during their 4-year term.
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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Let's remember what we just did today. This is not the confirmation of the Secretary of Defense. These are the confirmations of very competent people. No one can question the competence of these four people. No one can. All right? These are competent people who have served our country and who do a great job. So what we are doing is we are saying: Because some people don't like our Secretary of Defense, we are not going to allow the President to put a team together of very competent people.
So what we are doing is, now we just have acting people whom none of us get to vote on and none of us get to question until they come to committee. None of this makes any sense. It is not helping us put together a team and holding people accountable.
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