[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.
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