[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 146 (Thursday, September 12, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5463-S5466]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           EMERGENCY FUNDING

  Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, it is not a rhetorical flourish to say 
that Senate Republicans are being fully obedient to the President of 
the United States. The evidence of the last few days has confirmed that 
Republicans are not standing up for American institutions when they are 
tested, and they will not defend the American people when it counts the 
most. Through their silence, through their legislative actions, and 
through their votes, Republicans are allowing funds appropriated to the 
Department of Defense--funds that address critical military needs in 
their own home States--to be stolen in order to pay for the President's 
wall.
  Let me explain. The way we do MILCON, military construction, is 
nonpartisan. It is not bipartisan; it is nonpartisan. That means there 
is zero politics involved in selecting military construction projects 
for funding.
  The process goes like this: The base commanders decide what projects 
they need in order to support their missions and military communities. 
These projects are set up through the chain of command from the base 
command to the installation command. If the installation command says 
the project meets the cut and is important enough for military 
readiness, it is sent to the Service Chief, the Marine Corps 
Commandant, the Secretary of the Navy, and so on.
  From there, each Service Chief decides what projects to present to 
the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and then the Office of the 
Secretary of Defense racks and stacks these projects. It is a rigorous 
process, and not a single Member of the U.S. Senate gets to intervene 
during this process. They figure out which ones get addressed in the 
fiscal year, and some projects make the cut and others don't. The only 
thing we get to decide, once the matrix is sent to us, is how much 
money we have to deal with all of our military construction needs. 
Again, there is zero political involvement--no politicians, no side 
deals, no partisan uniforms. So by the time the Congress receives the 
final list of projects from DOD, every project has been thoroughly 
vetted. We recognize that at that point, every project is essential for 
the safety and security of the Nation, and every Secretary of Defense, 
every Secretary of the Army, every Secretary of the Navy, and so on 
looks us in the eye in the Senate Armed Services Committee and in the 
Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and says: This is essential. There 
is not a penny out of place. We need this, and we need this badly.
  Shame on the Republicans for allowing this argument over whether to 
build a border wall to do two things; first, to infect the institution 
of the Department of Defense with politics and to start to undermine 
the credibility of the Department and its interactions with the 
legislative branch; second, and very importantly, to diminish funding 
for critical military projects.
  What kind of projects are we talking about? There are 127 projects 
that are being raided that we funded. We enacted a law, the President 
declared an emergency, and the Republicans upheld that emergency. Now 
these projects are being defunded.
  Let me give you a couple of examples out of these 127. This is the 
form that comes in. These are the words of the Department of Defense.
  The first project, Fort Bragg, NC, ``Butler Elementary School 
Replacement.'' There is a section that is called ``IMPACT IF NOT 
PROVIDED.'' In other words, this is what happens if we don't provide 
this funding. This is what the Department of Defense says:

       The continued use of deficient, inadequate, and undersized 
     facilities that do not accommodate the current student 
     population will continue to impair the overall educational 
     program for students. If a new facility is not provided, the 
     substandard environment will continue to hamper the 
     educational process and the school will not be able to 
     support the curriculum and provide for a safe facility.

  Let me take this example of the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, 
Laurel Bay, SC. The impact if funding is not provided:

       [Fire and emergency service] personnel assigned to Laurel 
     Bay will continue to work from a significantly undersized and 
     unsafe facility. Because the structure does not meet seismic 
     requirements, complete structural collapse is probable during 
     a seismic event, causing death or major injury to emergency 
     personnel, and thus preventing timely response to the [Marine 
     Corps] housing community following the event.

  Finally, and this is going to be 3 out of 127 projects rated: Fort 
Greely, AK, ``Missile Field #1 Expansion.'' These are the ground-based 
interceptors designed to enhance our missile defense in the case of an 
attack from North Korea, ``IMPACT IF NOT PROVIDED.'' This one is 
succinct and scary:

       Planned enhancements and capabilities of the BMDS to meet 
     emerging threats will not

[[Page S5464]]

     be available for our Nation's homeland defense.

  Those are 3 out of 127 projects.
  I just want to ask my Republican colleagues: Where do you draw the 
line? I understand you can't stand up to the President every time or 
even most of the time, but my goodness, when they take funding from 
military families, from bases and installations, from missile defense, 
from military schools, can't you draw the line there? There has to be a 
point at which you say enough is enough. There has to be a point when 
you decide that agreeing with the President under any and all 
circumstances--and in this case, the most extreme of circumstances--is 
not how you are going to lead and govern on behalf of your home State.
  Let me say this in closing: I still hold out hope for a bipartisan 
solution to this issue. Democrats and Republicans may have very 
different goals, and we have different ideas about how to reach them, 
but there has to be a better way forward than raiding military funds 
for the wall. If there is anything that can bring the Senate together, 
it should be ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of our 
Nation's servicemembers and their families.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, let me thank Senator Schatz for his 
comments. I hope every Senator will follow the points he is making 
because I think they are critically important.
  First and foremost, we are talking about the appropriate power of the 
legislative branch of government. We have the power to appropriate. We 
are the article I branch of government. We have appropriated money for 
border security. We have appropriated money for military construction. 
Congress clearly intended the monies that we appropriated for military 
construction to go to our military installations and our military 
families. We made that conscientious decision.
  Now the President is transferring funds from military construction 
that help our service personnel to the border wall. I say that because 
it is an unconstitutional grasp of power. It compromises the checks and 
balances that are in our Constitution. It is an abuse of power, but it 
is also affecting the quality of life of the men and women who have 
voluntarily agreed to join our military to protect our country. We can 
give you many examples.
  We are talking about $3.6 billion of funds that were taken from 
military construction that are now being used by the President to fund 
the border wall. It is not Mexico that is paying for this wall; it is 
the men and women who are serving our Nation who are going to pay for 
this wall and our military service. That is outrageous, and every 
Member of the Senate should be concerned about that.
  Let me talk about my own State of Maryland and the military 
construction projects in Maryland that would be directly affected. 
There is a road project at Fort Meade for $16.5 million. Fort Meade is 
just a few miles away from the Nation's Capital. For any of you who 
have had the opportunity to travel between Baltimore and Washington, it 
is about halfway when you come to Fort Meade. You will notice the 
challenges of trying to get onto Fort Meade's base. The mission being 
done at Fort Meade is a national security priority for this country, 
and these roads are critically important for our national security. It 
has been backed up a long time. Now, thanks to the President--if this 
goes forward--it will be backed up a lot longer.
  The second cut is $37 million to Joint Base Andrews for a HAZMAT 
cargo path. This is a matter of safety for the men and women who work 
at Joint Base Andrews.
  I hope all of you are familiar with Joint Base Andrews, which is 
located just a few miles from here. The Air Force is there. Many of us 
go through that facility. It is critical that they have the facilities 
to protect our Nation's Capital and protect the Members and personnel 
who use that facility. The President, again, is taking away from the 
safety of the mission at Joint Base Andrews.
  The one issue I want to talk about that really highlights the 
hypocrisy of this transfer is the cut of $13 million to a child 
development center at Joint Base Andrews. I want to read for my 
colleagues the justification given by the Air Force for this request. I 
am quoting:

       The existing child development center was originally 
     constructed as a medical clinic in 1943, renovated to serve 
     many purposes over the last 74 years and is inadequate for 
     current needs. Presently, base child development center has 
     over 37 children on a waiting list for enrollment. The 
     existing facility has suffered from sewage backups, a leaking 
     roof, HVAC failures, along with mold and pest management 
     issues. Work orders continue to pile up despite heavy focus 
     from [engineers], making it more difficult to ensure 
     accreditation each year. The bathrooms are constantly 
     flooding and drainage issues in [the] kitchen result in 
     monthly backups.

  The justification continues by saying that the child development 
center ``either needs to be recapitalized due to condition, or taken 
out of service.''
  Then they wrote:

       IMPACT IF NOT PROVIDED: Not providing this facility forces 
     members to use more expensive, less convenient and 
     potentially lower quality off-base programs. These off-base 
     child development centers typically cost $9400 more than on-
     base, creating a severe financial strain on military 
     personnel. Quality of life will be severely degraded 
     resulting in impacts to retention and readiness because 
     Airmen and their families will not have a safe and nurturing 
     environment for child care.

  This is the Air Force's justification for this project. As they point 
out, it will cost military families an additional $10,000 a year. Who 
is paying for the wall? Our military families are paying for the wall, 
not the Government of Mexico. That is what is involved here.
  We cannot let this go forward. Every Member of this body should be 
aware of what is happening. I just mentioned three of the projects that 
are on that list of $3.7 billion that are being transferred to fund the 
wall that Congress intentionally provided the money for military 
families. That is wrong. We should stand up for our military families.
  I enjoy the fact that we all say we support our military. We are very 
proud of their stepping forward to defend us, and now we are telling 
them they have to pay an extra $10,000 for childcare. That is what is 
involved here. I hope every Member of this body will voice their 
opposition to what the President is attempting to do.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the Senate floor this afternoon 
with my Democratic colleagues to voice my strong opposition to this 
administration's move to take money away from our military to fund 
President Trump's wasteful border wall.
  I often say that we make a promise as a nation to take care of our 
servicemembers and their families sacrificing to defend our freedoms. 
But the Pentagon's announcement this week that it plans to move 
billions of dollars away from critical military construction projects 
across our country is more than a broken promise to our troops; it is 
an egregious abuse of power that undercuts Congress's constitutional 
obligation to set our Nation's budget, and it compromises critical 
national security priorities.
  Earlier today, Democrats on our Appropriations Committee and I 
supported an amendment to the Defense appropriations bill that would 
prevent the President from undermining Congress's authority. I was very 
disappointed to vote against that bill because our colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle would not join us to pass that necessary 
amendment and stand up against this outrageous plunder.
  This Executive overreach is deeply disturbing. It is particularly 
relevant to my home State of Washington, one of the States most 
impacted by the Pentagon's reckless decision this week. We learned that 
efforts to update the pier and maintenance facility at Naval Base 
Kitsap--a project essential to ensuring the safety and readiness of our 
military's nuclear submarines--are now deferred indefinitely because 
the nearly $89 million that Congress appropriated specifically for that 
priority are now being moved to build Trump's wall.
  As a reminder, this is a wall that the majority of the American 
people did not ask for and do not want and that President Trump 
originally claimed Mexico was going to pay for. It is a wall that 
Congress has time and again decided not to fund on a bipartisan

[[Page S5465]]

basis, to the point that President Trump decided to make a bogus 
national emergency declaration and sidestep Congress to raid the 
Federal coffers for his reckless vanity project.
  It is not just Naval Base Kitsap. We also learned that President 
Trump and the Pentagon are more than happy to fund this wall by 
slashing other military priorities, like strengthening access to 
military childcare, repairing vital military assets that were damaged 
by recent natural disasters, and more that enable our troops and their 
families to serve our country as we ask them to do.
  Here is the bottom line: I--and Senate Democrats--will not stand by 
while this President steps over Congress to build his wall on the backs 
of our troops and their families because they deserve a lot better for 
this country. I will not let up until this is made right.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, in this day and age, it would be easy 
to grow cynical and simply tune out the noise of a 24-hour cable news 
cycle that feeds off the latest Trump tweet. From Donald Trump's recent 
decision to invite the Taliban to join him for a retreat at Camp David 
for the weekend of the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to his 
earlier statements caught on tape, bragging about sexually assaulting 
women, I fear that too many--including Members of this Chamber--have 
become numb to this repeated debasing of the Presidency, numb to a 
President who lacks even a hint of remorse or shame as he spews lies to 
the people he was elected to serve.
  We cannot afford to be numb. We cannot let this become normal. No, we 
must hold Donald Trump accountable for his false promises and for his 
lies. We must ask what happened to Mexico's paying for the wall. Trump 
promised every American over and over again that they wouldn't have to 
spend a dime on his wall, pledging that Mexico would pick up the tab 
100 percent. He even said, ``It's an easy decision for Mexico: make a 
one-time payment of $5-$10 billion.''
  Of course, it wasn't so easy, and now Trump has done a 180, falsely 
claiming that he never said Mexico would write that check, trying to 
gaslight us all with every lie that he tells. We simply can't let him 
get away with it.
  The truth is that Donald Trump already revealed whom he really wants 
to pay for his wall. He discloses it every time his administration begs 
Congress to spend billions of your tax dollars building it. He doesn't 
care that many who live on the border believe building a wall from sea 
to shining sea is the least effective and most expensive way to secure 
the border. Trump may not care, but that helps explain Trump's failure 
to convince Congress to fund his vanity project--even when Republicans 
controlled both Chambers for 2 years.
  His outrageous response to his failure revealed another sad truth: 
The Presidency hasn't changed Donald Trump one bit. President Donald 
Trump is the very same old Donald Trump whose true character was 
revealed on the leaked ``Access Hollywood'' tapes.
  In Trump's mind, when you are the President, you can do anything. 
Congress didn't appropriate funds for your ineffective wall? Well, just 
grab funds that Congress authorized for more important programs. Tired 
of failing to convince Congress to spend American tax dollars on your 
wall? Well, just declare a fake emergency. Senate Republicans will let 
you do it.
  Listen, Trump's decision to build his vanity wall with funds stolen 
from military construction projects and Homeland Security initiatives 
isn't really about border security; it is about politics. If he 
actually wanted to secure our Nation's border, he wouldn't be stripping 
away funding from the dedicated men and women who are responsible for 
defending it: the U.S. Coast Guard. Yet that is exactly what he has 
done--ripped tens of millions of dollars away from Coast Guard 
programs. He has ignored that his actions could endanger our national 
security, and he has ignored that we are right in the middle of 
hurricane season.

  As if that were not bad enough, he has also defunded facilities that 
are dedicated to cyber warfare operations and bomb defusing training. 
He is slashing money from schools and childcare centers for our 
servicemembers' children too.
  Donald Trump told us over and over again that Mexico would pay for 
his wall. That was a lie. Mexico isn't paying for his wall. Our 
servicemembers and their families are. The families at Fort Campbell 
are, as their children will now have to keep eating lunch in their 
school's library because President Trump decided that revving up his 
political base was more important than upgrading an aging military 
school. My blood boils when I hear that the children of U.S. 
servicemembers are being forced to learn in makeshift classrooms within 
classrooms. No child should have to learn in that kind of environment. 
In my view, that is the true national emergency.
  Let me tell you about three other cases in which the President is 
stealing money in order to pay for his wall. One is at the Channel 
Islands Air National Guard Station in California.
  The project that is losing funds will supply the Colorado Air 
National Guard with an adequately sized and properly configured space 
to support a Space Control Squadron functions in accordance with force 
structure changes. The facility must provide adequate space to support 
the squadron's operations, maintenance, security, command and 
administration, and storage areas. The facility must have an 
unobstructed view of the southern horizon.
  The current situation is that this Space Control Squadron, most 
likely happening at Peterson Air Force Base, does not currently exist, 
and there is no adequate facility located at either Peterson or Buckley 
Air Force Base for this Space Control Squadron.
  The only solution that meets all mission requirements is to construct 
a new facility on Peterson Air Force Base. If this facility is not 
provided, the squadron will be unable to beddown the space control 
mission and equipment, with operational and strategic mission impacts 
due to inadequate facilities.
  This is what he is stealing money from in order to build his vanity 
wall.
  A second project is at Fort Greely, AK. The impact of taking the 
money from this project will mean that Fort Greely, AK, will not have 
the enhancements and capabilities for the Ballistic Missile Defense 
System.
  The mission of the Agency is to develop and field an integrated, 
layered Ballistic Missile Defense System to defend the United States, 
our deployed forces, allies, and friends against all ranges of enemy 
ballistic missiles in all phases of flight. This expansion project will 
provide the BMDS with increased ground-based interceptor capabilities, 
to allow for operational capability.
  What happens if the funds are not provided? The planned enhancements 
and capabilities of the Ballistic Missile Defense System to meet the 
emerging threats will not be available for our Nation's homeland 
defense.
  He is stealing money away from our Nation's homeland defense to build 
his vanity wall.
  Finally, at Fort Huachuca, AZ, the current situation is that the 
facilities do not meet the current mandatory criteria specified for 
vehicle testing and maintenance facilities. The current facilities date 
back to the 1930s and 1940s and have surpassed their estimated life 
expectancies. The facilities violate current antiterrorism/force 
protection standards. Existing utility systems, such as water, sewer, 
electric, and gas, require replacement. There are no other suitable 
buildings on the installation that are available in support of this 
mission.
  If they lose the funding for this project, the personnel will 
continue to work in substandard and unsafe facilities. The motor pool 
facilities do not comply with current life, safety building codes and 
quality-of-life standards. The current HVAC, fire suppression, the 
existing AT/FP and infrastructure deficiencies jeopardize the 
personnel's health, security, and safety.
  This is what he is taking money from to build this wall. The Senate 
could put a stop to this. It is up to us and our actions, and this very 
Chamber will determine whether the children of Fort Campbell, whether 
the personnel at Fort Huachuca, and whether the staff at Fort Greely, 
AK, can do their jobs. We can defend the power of the purse or we can 
be complicit in its destruction.

[[Page S5466]]

  Look, I am not naive. I know some don't share my outrage, that some 
believe that overcrowded military schools, a decrease in our national 
security defense, and our ability to defend against hostile ballistic 
missiles are not a crisis, let alone a national disgrace. These Trump 
loyalists cower to his bullying tactics, and in the coming days, they 
will try to reward his abuse of power. They will not stop Trump and 
return the stolen taxpayer dollars. Rather, they will argue that we 
should dig even deeper into the Nation's funds to spend more of your 
tax dollars to replace the money Trump stole. This is wrong. The 
Constitution entrusts Congress to authorize and to appropriate funds, 
not the President.
  I urge all of my colleagues to join me in condemning this raid of 
taxpayer funds. We must block these outrageous cuts that will harm 
military readiness, weaken our border security, and hurt the families 
of those who are brave enough to serve.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________