[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 117 (Friday, July 20, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9652-S9653]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PETE GEREN
Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I hoped to speak earlier this week when we
were engaged in debate on the Defense authorization bill. That was a
night, I am sure our Acting President pro tempore recalls, when folks
didn't get much sleep around here. A lot of my colleagues decided as
they spoke they wanted to speak for a long time. As a result, I suspect
fewer than half of us got to speak, and I had just a few thoughts I
wanted to share with respect to not just the Defense authorization bill
but the war in which we find ourselves in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Before I do that, I wish to mention that I think it was last Friday
at the end of the regular business session--maybe it was Thursday--we
went through the Executive Calendar. As the Senator from Ohio knows, on
the Executive Calendar we actually take up nominations submitted by the
committee that need confirmation by the Senate and we deal with those.
Oftentimes, if they are not controversial, we deal with them by
unanimous consent.
One of the nominations that came before us last week, under unanimous
consent, was that of Pete Geren, who had been nominated to be Secretary
of the Army. Our Acting President pro tempore spent a number of years
in the House of Representatives. I was there 10 years. I think he was
there for about as long, maybe even longer.
One of the finest people I ever served with in the House of
Representatives was a Democratic Congressman from Texas who actually
succeeded Jim Wright. Jim Wright stepped down as our Speaker, resigned
from the Congress, there was a special election, and who ended up
getting elected but Pete Geren. He became a Congressman for four terms
and was admired by Democrats and Republicans alike. Before that, he had
served as an aid to a legendary Senator from Texas, a fellow named
Lloyd Bentsen, who was also our party's nominee for Vice President.
Pete went to Georgia Tech and the University of Texas. He got a law
degree from the University of Texas, married well, had three kids, and
ended up here in the Congress with all of us. He resigned after his
fourth term and went back to Texas to become a businessperson and to
practice law. He did that for I think about 5 years, and lo and behold,
he got a call from a Republican administration to ask him to serve in
the Department of Defense, where he was a senior aid in the Secretary's
office, a role he played for I think about 3 or 4 years.
Subsequent to that, Pete Geren was asked to serve in a variety of
roles. He has been our Acting Secretary of the Air Force, he has been
the Under Secretary of the Army, the Interim Secretary of the Army, and
for the last week or so now, he has been the Secretary of the Army.
I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record his statement
before the Armed Services Committee, his confirmation hearing
statement.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[Congressional Hearings, June 19, 2007]
Senate Armed Services Committee Holds Hearing on the Nomination of
Preston Geren to be Secretary of the Army
GEREN: Mr. Chairman and Senator Warner and members of the
committee, it truly is an honor to be before you today as the
president's nominee.
I want to thank the president for his confidence in me and
Dr. Gates for his confidence, as well. It's truly a privilege
to have this opportunity.
Let me thank Senator Hutchison and Senator Cornyn for their
very kind remarks, two great leaders for our state and two
great leaders in this Senate, and I deeply appreciate, and I
know my family did, as well, their kind and generous remarks.
Mr. Chairman, I'd also like to note Senator Hutchison's
predecessor, who was the person who brought me into public
life, Senator Lloyd Bentsen, and had it not been for the
opportunity to work for Senator Bentsen, I'm confident I
would not have the opportunities to serve in our government
today.
Senator Bentsen passed away over the past year, a great
American, a great Senator, and I want to acknowledge my debt
to him.
Senator, I had introduced my family earlier. I've got, as
you do, three wonderful girls, three great kids, and, again,
I want to thank them for standing with me and standing with
Beckie and me in our time here in Washington and all the
time.
My family and I came to Washington planning a three-year
hitch and six years later, we're still here.
I joined the Department of Defense in August 2001,
expecting a peacetime assignment in business transformation
of the Department of Defense. Then came September 11 and the
war.
There's a sense of mission working among our military
during time of war that's hard to walk away from. For the
past six years, I've watched soldiers, sailors and airmen go
off to war and I've watched their families stand steadfast
and unwavering in their support of their departed loved ones
and live with the uncertainty of whether he or she would
return home.
And they live with a certainty that there would be
birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, graduations and the ups
and downs of everyday life that their loved one would miss
for 12 months, originally, and now 15 months and too often
watch those families live with a loss when their loved one
did not return.
I've been inspired by the selfless service of our soldiers
and humbled by the sacrifice of their families. I've held
staff and leadership jobs in the Pentagon over these past six
years and consider it the privilege of a lifetime to have the
opportunity to work on behalf of our men and women in our
nation's military and their families during the time of war.
Our grateful nation cannot do enough and I'm honored to
play a part, a supporting role in their service to our nation
on the front lines.
When I came before you seeking confirmation as under
secretary of the Army, I told you my top priority would be
taking care of soldiers and their families. I reaffirm that
commitment today with a greater understanding of that
responsibility.
My year as under secretary of the Army taught me much. My
four months as acting secretary of the Army has taught me
much more.
We have over 140,000 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. We
can never take our eye off of that ball. They're counting on
their Army, big Army, to continue to provide them the
training, equipment and leadership to take the fight to the
enemy and defend themselves.
They count on their Army leadership back home to move the
bureaucracy on the home front. They count on their secretary
and their chief to stand up for them, get them what they need
when they need it.
We must act with urgency every day, every day, to meet
their needs. Today, the issue is MRAP. Tomorrow, it will be
different. The enemy is forever changing and forever
adapting.
Mr. Chairman, further, as an Army, we pledge never to leave
a fallen comrade. That is not an abstract notion. That means
on the battlefield, in the hospital, or in an outpatient
clinic or over a life of dependency, if that is what's
required to fulfill this pledge.
I've witnessed the cost in human terms and to the
institution of the Army when we break faith with that pledge,
as a handful did at Walter Reed. A few let down the many and
broke that bond of trust.
But I have seen soldiers, enlisted, NCOs and officers
respond when they learned that someone has let down a
soldier. They step up and they make it right. They make it
better and they do not rest until the job is done and they
expect and demand accountability.
And I've seen the strain of multiple deployments on
soldiers' families. A wife and mother said recently, ``I can
hold the family together for one deployment. Two is harder
and three is harder still.'' Over half of our soldiers today
are married with families. Over 700,000 children are in the
families of our soldiers.
The health of the all volunteer force depends on the health
of those families. We must expect that our future offers an
era of persistent conflict. We will continue to ask much of
the Army family. We must meet the needs of our families,
provide them with a quality of life comparable to the quality
of their service and sacrifice.
It's the right thing to do and the future of our all
volunteer force depends on it.
And as President Lincoln pledged to us as a nation, our
duty does not stop when our soldier or our nation leaves the
field of battle. We must care for those who have borne the
battle, his widow and his orphan.
That commitment extends over the horizon and we have
learned we have much to do to fulfill that commitment.
Lately, we have come face to face with some of our
shortcomings, a complex disability system that
[[Page S9653]]
can frustrate and fail to meet the needs of soldiers, a
system that often fails to acknowledge, understand and treat
some of the most debilitating, yet invisible wounds of war,
leaving soldiers to return from war only to battle
bureaucracy at home and leaving families at a loss on how to
cope.
The Department of Defense, working with the Veterans
Affairs Department and this committee and this Congress have
a opportunity that does not come along often to move our
nation a quantum leap forward in fulfillment of that
commitment. We cannot squander this opportunity.
And, Mr. Chairman and Senator Warner, I commend this
committee for the step forward you all took last week in your
bill to start the process of meeting the needs of those
wounded warriors and we look forward to working with you,
again, to push that initiative.
Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, thank you for all
you do for our soldiers and their families. The Army has no
greater friend than this committee.
Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution makes the Army and
the Congress full partners in the defense of our nation and
in the service of our soldiers and their families.
If confirmed, I look forward to continuing to work with you
in discharging our duty to those soldiers.
I look forward to your questions. Thank you.
LEVIN: Secretary Geren, thank you for a heartfelt and a
powerful statement. I can't remember that I've ever heard a
better one, frankly, coming from a nominee. It was very
personal and I think it had power.
I just wish every American, every soldier and everyone of
their families could have heard your opening statement.
Mr. CARPER. Subsequent to his giving his statement, the chairman of
the committee, Carl Levin, and later on Senator Joe Lieberman--both
praised the statement, Senator Levin saying, ``I can't remember that
I've ever heard a better one, frankly, coming from a nominee. . . .''
He said it was ``a heartfelt and a powerful statement.''
One of my favorite sayings is: In politics, friends come and go, but
our enemies accumulate. For a lot of us in this business, that is the
truth. Pete Geren is the exception to that rule. He is admired and
liked by people with whom he served in the House and Senate, Democrat
and Republican. For a Democrat in Congress ending up to be asked to
serve as Acting Secretary and Secretary of the Army is a compliment and
really reflective of the kind of person he is. He is a person who tries
to figure out what is the right thing to do and to do it. He routinely,
consistently treats other people the way he would want to be treated.
He has great values, great work ethic, and is just a terrific public
servant to the people of this country.
I am delighted he has now been asked to serve and was confirmed by
all of us unanimously to serve as our Secretary of the Army. It is a
big job, a tough job at a tough time to serve in that capacity, but I
know he will have our full support. He certainly has my support and my
long-time admiration.
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