National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014

Floor Speech

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Ms. McCOLLUM. The Army National Guard is spending over $53 million in taxpayer funds this year to sponsor World Wrestling Entertainment and motor sports racing.

That's right. At a time of enormous Federal budget deficits, endless borrowing from China, sequestration's harming military readiness, and deep cuts to services for vulnerable children, seniors and people with disabilities, the Army National Guard is spending over $53 million to have its logo highlighted at World Wrestling Entertainment events and to sponsor NASCAR racing and IndyCar racing. After years of congressional debate, the Army National Guard still cannot provide any data--zero statistics--to demonstrate anyone has signed a recruiting contract as a result of this program.

This amendment can bring both liberals and Tea Party conservatives together. The fact that $53 million in taxpayer funds is going to sponsor some of the most violent and sexist entertainment on television and NASCAR racing teams that result in zero recruits is a waste of money, and it should be stopped.

As a member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, over and over these past 3 months, our subcommittee has heard from military leaders that sequestration is causing a crisis: military readiness is diminished; hundreds of thousands of critical civilian Pentagon employees are being furloughed; and vital services, like access to mental health care, are being cut. In fact, the National Guard testified that, because of sequestration, 115,000 traditional National Guard forces will not receive their annual medical or dental examinations.

The Guard says: ``This reduction in examinations will bring total force medical readiness down by 39 percent.''

Yet the National Guard can afford to pay one NASCAR race car driver $29 million and to pay another driver $14 million for IndyCar racing?

Clearly, this is a case of misplaced priorities. Congress has to make tough choices and smart cuts. Terminating this wasteful, ineffective program is an easy choice unless you want to protect government handouts to millionaire race car drivers and owners.

In the past, some of my conservative friends have made the claim that cutting this wasteful spending was micromanaging the Pentagon.

My job is not to protect race car track owners and millionaire race car drivers. Cutting government waste and protecting taxpayer dollars is not micromanaging. It is our job.

In recent years, the Army, Navy, and the Marine Corps have all terminated NASCAR sponsorships because these sponsorships failed to meet their recruiting goals. They're making other more effective investments in recruiting dollars.

The Army is sponsoring high school football, the All-American Bowl. That's fantastic. They're also sponsoring robotic competitions to engage with and help our young people develop the skills to best service our Nation and to serve in the Armed Forces.

The very best marketing and branding the Army National Guard gets is not from a logo on a race car or a violent wrestling performance. It is from the lifesaving work that our National Guardsmen and -women perform during times of crisis in our communities during the floods, during the forest fires, and during national disasters.

I am so proud of the service and sacrifice of the Minnesota National Guardsmen and -women who have served our Nation in Kosova, Iraq, Afghanistan, and at home in Minnesota over the past decade. They are heroes.

The opponents of my amendment believe that a $29 million taxpayer-funded logo on a race car results in National Guard recruits and reenlistments. Based on what? The National Guard has failed to prove any data, no program measures, that this program has resulted in any recruits--zero data, zero recruits.

This Republican Congress is cutting children off of school lunch programs and kicking them off of Head Start to save money. This Congress is willing to inflict sequestration on our military, and it undermines our readiness. This amendment gives Members an opportunity to cut real waste.

Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

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