[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 149 (Tuesday, September 17, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5502-S5503]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Emergency Funding

  Madam President, I rise in opposition today to President Trump's 
continued efforts to move funding from our military in order to build 
his beloved wall on our southern border, and I rise as well in defense 
of the powers given to Congress in article I of the Constitution.
  Last week, the President announced he was taking $3.6 billion from 
America's military to build his wall. He did so by canceling 127 
military construction projects around the world and in 26 States and 
territories. Already, President Trump had taken $2.5 billion from our 
military earlier this year. Last week's decision brings the total to 
over $6 billion--$6 billion of investments in our American military and 
national security that the President of the United States has diverted 
so he can have a bragging point in the reelection campaign about his 
beloved wall.
  This decision has rippled across the country and the world.
  Remember the terrible damage Hurricane Maria did in Puerto Rico, 
which is still being repaired? Our military prioritized $400 million to 
rebuild National Guard facilities and the school for military children 
there. With the stroke of a pen, and without the approval of Congress, 
the President took away these funds.
  Joint Base Andrews in Maryland needed a new childcare facility for 
military families. Some of the rooms in that current facility have been 
closed due to mold, which has created overcrowding. There are 130 
children on a waiting list to get into this facility. Their parents are 
paying for expensive off-base childcare. It is unacceptable.
  So Congress, on behalf of these military families at Joint Base 
Andrews in Maryland, approved the money to upgrade the childcare 
center. Once again, with the stroke of a pen, President Trump took the 
military family childcare funds for his almighty wall.
  Military children at Fort Campbell, KY, the home State of the 
Republican majority leader of the Senate, are forced to use overcrowded 
classrooms and a cafeteria so small that students are often shipped off 
to the library to eat.
  With the same stroke of a pen, $62 million that Congress authorized 
for Senator McConnell's home State of Kentucky to fix the problem are 
gone, headed to the border of the United States for the President to be 
able to boast at a rally.
  As if these stories weren't troubling enough, the Air Force is also 
sounding the alarm. A leaked internal review by the Air Force warns 
that President Trump's decision to cancel 51 Air Force projects poses 
serious national security risks to our country.
  Imagine if the shoe were on the other foot and the President were a 
member of my party, the Democratic Party. What would we be hearing from 
the Republican side of the aisle?
  One of the projects that has been canceled for the Air Force by the 
President's effort to divert military funds to his wall is Incirlik Air 
Base in Turkey. They needed an upgrade for security on their main gate. 
The Air Force says that without this project, the base is ``vulnerable 
to hostile penetration in the midst of contingency operations and an 
increased terrorist threat.''
  For goodness' sake. The President is building a wall in the middle of 
a desert that is not solving the problem

[[Page S5503]]

we face with our southern border and taking money away from the main 
gate of an Air Force Base in Turkey that has been identified as needing 
to be rebuilt for security against terrorism?
  The report also describes how canceling upgrades to a munitions site 
at an air base in Guam may impact the ability of fighter and bomber 
aircraft to operate properly.
  I ask my colleagues honestly: Are these risks worth taking from our 
military so the President can have a walk-off line at one of his 
political rallies?
  U.S. allies across the globe that are committed to our defense are 
starting to doubt if this White House is still interested in being the 
leader of the free world.
  U.S. troops based in NATO ally countries like Poland, Italy, Germany, 
and Estonia expected $770 million in investments in training center and 
logistical support to push back on Russian aggression in Europe. I can 
tell you, having visited the Baltic States, how critically important 
these funds are to remind the people of that region that the United 
States and NATO allies still stand solidly behind them, as Putin 
threatens them with aggression on a daily basis, and now President 
Trump has removed many of these funds. Similarly, U.S. troops in South 
Korea and Japan were planning on $670 million to protect them from 
threats from North Korea and China.
  The cancellation of all these projects is based on a national 
emergency declared by the President that was rejected by both Houses of 
Congress in bipartisan votes. Congress should not be silent when anyone 
dismisses the real needs of our men and women in uniform for politics. 
Nor should it sit back when the President of any party tries to 
undermine its constitutional duty to provide for the common defense of 
the United States.
  I am greatly concerned that these events set a precedent that 
undermines the Appropriations Committee, which I have dedicated my 
Senate career to.
  We all remember President Donald Trump's idea that we need a 2,000-
mile concrete wall, as he said, ``from sea to shining sea,'' paid for 
by Mexico. He said it 200 times when he campaigned for the Office of 
President, but as we have seen, Mexico hasn't put up a peso. The 
President has decided the American military should pay for it instead. 
The resulting damage to our military and to the Appropriations 
Committee's constitutional authority continues to accumulate.
  It has to stop, and it can stop if my colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle can come together to reassert their obligations under the 
Constitution and provide our military families with the certainty that 
they haven't been forgotten in the midst of the runup to the 2020 
campaign.
  I hope all of us think long and hard about the importance of this 
decision and our obligation to stand behind our men and women in the 
military.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.