[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 61 (Friday, April 7, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2439-S2440]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Nomination of Heather Wilson

  Madam President, I rise today in strong support of the confirmation 
of Dr. Heather Wilson to be the 24th Secretary of the Air Force.
  I have had the privilege of knowing Dr. Wilson since her election to 
Congress, where she distinguished herself as a member of the House 
Intelligence Committee. In my interactions with Dr. Wilson in the 
Intelligence Committee, it quickly became apparent that she is a person 
of great intellect and exceptional character. But this should come as 
no surprise since she has always achieved a level of excellence in each 
of her endeavors.
  Dr. Wilson knew success from an early age. She made history as one of 
the first female graduates of the Air Force Academy. At the academy, 
she thrived as a student, eventually earning a Rhodes scholarship to 
attend Oxford University, where she earned a Ph.D. in international 
relations.
  Dr. Wilson then wrote a well-received book titled ``International Law 
and the Use of Force by National Liberation Movements.'' As a lawyer, I 
was particularly impressed by Dr. Wilson's in-depth analysis of 
international law. What is all the more impressive is that the book was 
published as she was serving as Director of Defense Policy and Arms 
Control for the National Security Council.
  Dr. Wilson's commitment to national security was evident when she 
served in the House of Representatives from 1998 to 2009. When she left 
the House after more than a decade of service, Congress' loss was South 
Dakota's gain. In 2013, she became the president of the South Dakota 
School of Mines and Technology. There, she showed extraordinary skill 
in leading a large institution.
  In sum, Dr. Heather Wilson is a person of great intellect, strong 
management skills, and superlative character. I believe she will be an 
outstanding Secretary of the Air Force, which is why I strongly 
encourage my colleagues to confirm her without delay.
  Confirming Dr. Wilson with dispatch is necessary to address the many 
challenges currently facing our military. After all, there are 
fundamental issues regarding the readiness of our armed services--
especially the Air Force--which must be confronted and resolved.
  Although the lack of proper investment and training is evident in 
each of the military departments, I am especially concerned about the 
Air Force because of its unique missions and responsibilities. Two 
words describe each set of problems facing our Air Force: ``too few''--
too few aircraft; too few personnel, including pilots; too few flight 
training hours.
  Regarding the shortage of aircraft, as the Air Force Vice Chief of 
Staff recently testified before the SASC Readiness Subcommittee, less 
than 50 percent of the services' aircraft are ready to perform all of 
the combat missions to which they are assigned. The average age of the 
service's fighter aircraft is 27 years old. Many other aircraft, 
including the B-52 and the KC-135, have decades of wear and tear. Even 
more alarming, the aging aircraft of the 1950s and 1960s will be 
retained in the force for the foreseeable future.
  The current number of 55 fighter squadrons falls short of the number 
needed to fulfill our warfighters' requirements. As Dr. Wilson 
testified during her confirmation hearing, ``the Air Force is not fully 
ready to fight against a near-peer competitor,'' such as China or 
Russia--too few aircraft, indeed.
  Of course, the number of aircraft is just one of the multiple issues 
facing the Air Force. We also have too few personnel, including pilots. 
Our aircraft--no matter how advanced--cannot fly without experienced 
and highly trained maintenance personnel, and we need 3,400 more before 
the service can effectively accomplish its mission.
  We are also running short of the men and women who fly these 
aircraft. In recent testimony before the Airland Subcommittee, senior 
Air Force officers testified that the service had a deficit of 1,555 
pilots. Of that number, we require more than 750 additional fighter 
pilots. Further, there is concern that those pilots who remain are 
receiving very few flight training hours--much less than needed.
  These are enormous challenges. But despite the Herculean task in 
front of us, I have no doubt Dr. Wilson will develop the strategies and 
policies required to restore our Air Force to a full state of 
readiness. I hope the Senate will speed the confirmation of Dr. Wilson 
to become the 24th Secretary of Air Force.
  Madam President, I am very concerned with the way Neil Gorsuch has 
been treated. We could not have a finer person, a more ready person, a 
more knowledgeable person, a more legal expert-type of a person than 
Neil Gorsuch for this very, very important calling on the Supreme 
Court.
  It is amazing to me how some of my colleagues on the other side have 
ignored all of the facts, all of the evidence, all of the experience, 
all of the goodness of this man. I hope they will not vote against him, 
but it looks to me as though many of them are going to vote against 
him. If you are voting against Neil Gorsuch, who can you support? Are 
you just going to support people who do your bidding? Or are you going 
to support people who really can do the Nation's bidding, do the things 
that this country needs?
  Neil Gorsuch is that type of a person. He has that kind of an 
ability. He has that kind of experience. He is a terrific human being. 
Whether you agree with him or disagree with him, you walk away saying: 
``Well, he certainly makes a lot of good points.'' You walk away 
saying: I like that guy. He is somebody I can work with. He is somebody 
that really loves this country. He is somebody who sets an exemplary 
example in every way.
  I have to say that, in my years of service here, I have seen a number 
of Supreme Court nominations, and I have seen a number of people put on 
the Court, and they have all been exceptional people. But there is none 
of them who exceeds Neil Gorsuch. He is that good. It is kind of a 
shame that we can't, in a bipartisan way, support this selection.
  I suspect that there is more to it than Judge Gorsuch. I think our 
colleagues on the other side know that this early in President Trump's 
reign as President of the United States, he might very well have 
another one, two, or even three or four, nominees to the Court. I don't 
blame my colleagues on the other side for being concerned, because--
let's face it--he is unlikely to put people on the Court with whom they 
agree.
  On the other hand, he is very likely to put people on the Court who 
are

[[Page S2440]]

great lawyers, who have had great experience, who will bring great 
distinction to the Court, and who will, without telling us how they are 
going to vote and how they are going to rule, do the job that we all 
count on the Supreme Court doing.
  The Supreme Court, to me, is a sacred institution. We have had great 
Justices on both sides--on all sides, as a matter of fact. We have had 
great Democrat Justices. We have had great Republican Justices. No one 
knows how great the nominee is going to be until that nominee actually 
serves on the Court and does the job that is so difficult to do as a 
member of the U.S. Supreme Court. I have every confidence Neil Gorsuch 
will be one of the all-time great Justices for that Court. He deserves 
confirmation. He deserves overwhelming confirmation. If we weren't in 
such a disputative mood around here, if we didn't have so much problems 
with each other, he would be an easy person to support.
  So I hope we can put our politics aside and look at the man, look at 
his experience, look at his ability, look at his genius, look at his 
decency, and look at the fact that he agreed with his colleagues on 99 
percent of the cases tried before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals--
and most of those colleagues were Democrats. Look at these types of 
things, and say: My gosh, what are we about here? Has it just become a 
politicized exercise every time we have a Supreme Court nomination, one 
way or the other?
  I have to admit that it looked as though Hillary Clinton was going to 
win. Senator McConnell decided that we should not put Merrick Garland 
on during a Presidential election, which I think was a good decision. 
It was a sincere decision. It looked as though, if Hillary Clinton was 
going to win, she might very well put a much more liberal judge on the 
Court than Merrick Garland. The fact of the matter is, Senator 
McConnell knew the odds were against Republicans winning the Presidency 
this last election.
  To some, it was kind of miraculous for Donald Trump to win. It wasn't 
miraculous to me, because last May Donald Trump called me and asked me 
to support him. I said: You don't want me. I said: I am the kiss of 
death.
  He laughed and he said: What do you mean the kiss of death?
  Well, I supported Jeb Bush, and he went down to defeat. Then I 
supported Marco Rubio, my colleague in the Senate, and he had to 
withdraw. So I am the kiss of death.
  He said: I want you, anyway.
  So I became one of two Senators who supported this now-President of 
the United States and was gratified to see him win that election. I 
thought he could. Deep down, I knew there was a great chance because I 
was going all over the country and I found that people were not willing 
to say whom they were for. I knew darn well they were for Trump. They 
just didn't want to admit it--especially Democrats. But he got an 
overwhelming number of blue-collar Democrats--I understand them; I 
learned a trade as a young man--who voted for him.
  When I say I learned a trade, I was born not with the wealth of some 
of our colleagues. I was born in what some people would call poverty 
today. We didn't think we were poverty-stricken. My parents were very 
solid, decent, honorable people, but they were poor--frankly, poor in 
the sense of monetary value. But they were good, honest, decent people, 
and I feel very blessed to have been raised by them.
  All I can say is this. To allow the selection of the Supreme Court 
nominee to come down to a wide vote against that nominee with the 
qualities of Neil Gorsuch--if that is what my colleagues on the other 
side, in their wisdom, decide to do, I think it is a disgrace. I think 
it flies in the face of years and years of people selected for the 
Court. Now, we all can differ. Everybody has that right. All I can say 
is I just wish we were more together as a body.
  I have great respect for my Democratic colleagues, as well as my 
Republican colleagues. This is the greatest deliberative body in the 
world. Despite our difficulties and our differences, we do a lot of 
really good things for this country. And we do it at its best in a 
bipartisan way when we can.

  Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.