Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum be rescinded.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I come to the floor today to speak on two separate and distinct matters relating to the military.

REMEMBERING OUR ARMED FORCES

JUSTIN ELDRIDGE

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, no one in this body other than I had the privilege to know Justin Eldridge of Waterford, CT. Justin was a true American hero, a patriot--a U.S. marine who served our country in Afghanistan and who scarcely more than 24 hours ago took his own life at his home. My thoughts and prayers are with Justin's wife Joanna and their four children and all of Justin's family and friends, fellow marines, who grieve his loss at this difficult time.

I first came to know Justin when he formed a chapter of the Marine Corps League in southeastern Connecticut. He believed deeply in the Marine Corps and in service to his country, his family, and in the values and traditions and ethos of all of our great U.S. marines and the men and women who wear the uniform.

Yesterday, Justin Eldridge lost his own battle--a long battle with post-traumatic stress that he fought heroically after serving in the Marine Corps for 8 1/2 years before his medical retirement in 2008. Even after he returned home from Afghanistan, Justin had a long fight ahead of him. He returned home with the signature wounds of this war--both traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress--and he worked for years to get the specialized treatment he needed. He tried hard to be there for his family. According to his wife Joanna, his four children loved having him around.

He faced another all-too-common problem in this country--health care at the Veterans' Administration and accessing the care he needed. He was admitted to the VA hospital and began a long road of treatment. I cannot express in words how deeply sorry I am that treatment evidently proved unsuccessful--perhaps not the result of the VA or its doctors or its hospital because we are only beginning to learn as a country and society how to confront post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury with the specialized diagnosis and care these diseases demand.

Even in grief we should not forget Justin's service to his country and his joy and his pride in that service--and he deserved both joy and pride--as well as his long-fought battle here at home.

I wish to take this occasion to encourage anyone who is suffering from post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, or any other wounds of war to reach out for help. The Veterans Crisis Line is there to help you. Anyone who needs that help can call 1-800-273-TALK. Courage is shown not only on the battlefield but afterward upon return when an individual in need of help seeks it, as Justin did.

Justin's story also reminds us of the heroic caregivers who take care of our Nation's veterans. We owe thanks to the people who dedicate their lives to helping those who have served.

Joanna also deserves our thanks because she was there for Justin, by his side throughout his treatment. She never gave up; she never relented; she never surrendered. She was his full-time caregiver, participating in the VA's caregiver program.

Justin himself continued to give back. I will never forget my conversations with him at that Marine Corps League event and afterward by email and phone.

Joanna is a strong advocate for all veterans, as we should all be. She studied psychology in college and hopes to go to law school. She wants to dedicate her life to being a veterans advocate, and I commend her and all of our military families, all of our military spouses who are there for their loved ones who seek to reach out.

We need to keep faith with those veterans. We need to know and discover what will conquer the demons that often threaten to subdue our bravest and most selfless veterans when they come back and to give them the courage and the strength they need to conquer these dreaded diseases that we ourselves have a complicity in creating. We have an obligation and an opportunity to do more and we must keep faith and make sure no veteran is left behind.

My heart and prayers go to Justin's family and, of course, I know I am joined by all the Members of this body not only in grieving but in offering our help and service if there is anything we can do.

Madam President, I would like to speak on a topic that has been discussed by two of my colleagues this morning, the senior Senator from Texas, Senator Cornyn, and the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Chairman Carl Levin. I thank my colleagues for joining me in raising a vital issue that must be addressed by this body and by Alan Estevez--a well-qualified nominee for the position of Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics.

I will vote for the confirmation today of Alan Estevez. I believe he is well qualified and has the credentials to perform with distinction in this role. I hope that uppermost on his list of priorities will be the Mi-17 helicopter acquisition that is so misguided and wrongheaded in the way it has been handled by our own Department of Defense.

If one were to stop at Stella's corner restaurant on Main Street in Stratford, CT, for lunch or a cup of coffee and ask the folks there: What do you expect from your government? I think one of the things they would say is they expect the Congress and all of us here to keep our country safe; and that when it comes to buying the equipment for our troops and allies, we should do so, hands down, no doubt about it, by buying American. It should be made in America, manufactured in Connecticut or in the United States. Nothing could be more simple or straightforward. Yet somehow that Main Street common sense is simply ignored across the river at the Department of Defense, the Pentagon, where so many decisions are made.

Since becoming a member of the Armed Services Committee I have become aware the Department of Defense committed almost $1 billion to provide Afghanistan a fleet of Mi-17 helicopters. Let me clarify: Russian helicopters going to Afghanistan with American tax dollars, bought from the Russian export agency that at the same time is selling arms to Bashar Assad to kill his own people in Syria.

Since 2005, the United States has been procuring Mi-17s to build the capacity of the Afghan military and is working toward a total fleet size of approximately 80 helicopters. The Afghan military had approximately 50 Mi-17s as of last year, and this year the Army awarded a $572 million contract to purchase another 30, with approximately 15 more to come, to replace the aging helicopters the Afghan military has already run into the ground and failed to maintain.

The contract to award these helicopters was managed in a way to prevent any American helicopter companies from bidding on the work, even though the analysis of the Department of Defense in 2010 concluded the made-in-America CH-47D Chinook helicopter is the most cost-effective single platform type fleet for the Afghan Air Force over a 20-year life cycle.

I acknowledge I may be partial to helicopters made in Connecticut. The best helicopters in the world are made in Connecticut by the Sikorsky employees who happen to stop at Stella's on Main Street for lunch or a cup of coffee, and I see them there all the time. The H-92 troop transport helicopter or H-60 should also be considered by the Department of Defense for this mission. But at the end of the day, ``made in the USA'' ought to be the ruling principle. Made in the USA--American helicopters for the American military and American allies.

In 2011, the Army contracted with the Russian state-owned arms export firm Rosoboronexport. Yes, the very same Rosoboronexport that arms our enemies in Iran and is a key enabler of Assad's ongoing slaughter of his own civilians in Syria. Women and children in Syria die by the arms provided by Rosoboronexport--purchased by Assad with money financed by Russian banks and purchased from Rosoboronexport. These are well-documented crimes against humanity--war crimes that eventually

should be prosecuted.

I am working with my colleague Senator Ayotte on legislation to strengthen the contracting provisions that prohibit ``contracting with the enemy.'' These contracts are, in effect, supporting enemy purchases. Before us is a glaring example of contracting with the enemy.

We have all heard testimony that preventing mass atrocities in Syria was complicated by their air and naval defense systems that prevent the protection of civilians in Syria and threaten its neighbors in Turkey and Jordan. Where did those systems come from? The answer is Rosoboronexport--the same systems that could shoot down our planes if we pursue additional measures against Syrian war crimes, the same entity that arms Iran, where we currently are seeking solutions against nuclear armament, and where we have said all options should be on the table in terms of our military action. The Department of Defense thinks the best thing for our long-term national security is to pay the Russian arms dealer that threatens global stability and our own freedom of action.

But it gets worse. Without question we have overpaid for these Russian helicopters. A general told me the best way to think about these helicopters is they are ``flying refrigerators'' that we never should have bought in the first place. We paid about $18 million a copy, while Russia sold other nations Mi-17s for $4 million each. What a bargain. Other countries buy each helicopter for $4 million, we pay $8 million.

And it is still worse. The Army acquisition office that handled this contract is now under investigation for ``questionable transactions,'' including potentially improper payments to Russian companies involved in the repair of these helicopters as well as problematic personal ties between the Army officials in this office and those foreign entities.

If I went to Stella's and I told this absolutely remarkable story, I am hoping the folks there would say: No, you must be making this up. This couldn't happen at the U.S. Department of Defense. No way in the United States of America, not with our tax dollars. But in fact it is all true, and I have tried to cite the facts as objectively and dispassionately as possible.

I suspect for anybody at Stella's who might have believed this incredible tale, they would have said: Well, if a tenth of that is true, what are you going to do to stop it? What are you going to do to end this waste of taxpayer money and the insult and outrage to the American taxpayer? Well, we did something. At my urging, and through the work of my colleagues who have spoken, including Senator Cornyn, Congress, in the Defense Appropriations Act, expressly prohibited the Department of Defense from spending any more taxpayer money on Russian helicopters and doing business with Rosoboronexport.

In fact, I wrote to the Secretary of Defense about this program. I have written numerous letters, and I have met with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Did that stop these purchases? No. The $ 1/2 billion contract recently signed, recently completed, now under way by the U.S. Army for more Russian helicopters, used previously appropriated funds to ignore the will of Congress. Clearly, the spirit and intent of the National Defense Authorization Act was to end these purchases. The U.S. Department of Defense, in effect, has defied the will of Congress.

So here we are today, almost $1 billion out the door and the near certainty these helicopters are going to be used to smuggle drugs--that is right, smuggle drugs in Afghanistan. That purchase has occurred. The contract has been completed. And we can be sure, just as they failed to maintain those helicopters in the past, they will fail again in the future because the Afghan national security forces don't have the people trained to maintain the helicopters. In fact, right now it doesn't have the people trained to fly those helicopters. And in a few years what the American taxpayer will have to show for this folly is rusted scrap heaps at Bagram Air Force Base.

I understand that some in the Pentagon started this program with good intentions. Their thinking may have been that the Afghans already had some of these helicopters in the process of standing up their capability to defend themselves, they ought to have a few more, and then transition to a more capable helicopter. I have heard from our generals that we need these helicopters because the Afghans know how to fly them. But the fact is this program was never designed to be sustainable after we leave Afghanistan.

My hope is we will leave Afghanistan sooner rather than later. There is simply no transition in place now or in the foreseeable future to buy American, to train those Afghan pilots how to fly those American helicopters, how to maintain American helicopters.

When the Russians forced us to procure the helicopters from them directly, rather than excess helicopters from countries like the Czech Republic, we should have made a course correction immediately, even if we thought those kinds of helicopters were necessary in the short term. There were options and alternatives that should have been pursued and they were not.

That is why I believe the plan requested by the senior Senator from Texas makes a lot of sense. He has asked the Department of Defense for an alternative plan for meeting the Afghan requirements. We cannot walk away from a problem that we created. We cannot walk away from the need for a transition. But there is a better way to get there. The answer, very simply, is buy American, buy American helicopters.

I expect Mr. Estevez will be confirmed today. But I want to say to him please, as one of your priorities, figure out a way to end these purchases from Rosoboronexport. You owe it to the Members of this body. You owe it to the American people to find a way to buy American and to keep faith with the brave men and women who will use the equipment that you will help purchase with taxpayer dollars. I know you take this responsibility seriously, and I hope that you will bring that seriousness of purpose to these issues because they are important, not just to the military and not just to taxpayers, but most especially to the American men and women who wear the uniform of the United States of America.

I yield the floor.

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