[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 72 (Tuesday, April 27, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2208-S2209]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Nomination of Colin Hackett Kahl

  Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, I come to the floor today to urge my 
colleagues strongly to vote against the nomination of Colin Kahl to 
serve as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. That position is the 
No. 3 position in the Department of Defense.
  Last week, Colin Kahl became President Biden's first nominee not to 
garner one single Republican vote on the Senate floor. The Vice 
President had to cast the tie-breaking vote. Every other nominee, even 
some of the most partisan progressives, earned at least one or some 
Republican votes.
  What makes this nomination even more out of the ordinary is that this 
truly never happens with DOD nominees. If you look back over the last 
decade, recorded votes on DOD nominees are rare and only a few times 
did a nominee receive support from fewer than two-thirds of the Senate. 
It just doesn't happen. It happened this time.
  Some of his tweets have raised concerns from a number of our 
colleagues that Dr. Kahl might have shared sensitive or classified 
information on Twitter. The junior Senator from Tennessee highlighted 
this on the floor last week.
  Furthermore, Dr. Kahl's tweets also show a history of volatile 
behavior that goes further than just being highly partisan and 
unbalanced. He is also somewhat of a conspiracy theorist.
  In May of 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced 
that Israel had seized a major nuclear archive from Iran. That archive 
has since revealed many previously unknown nuclear sites, and the 
International Atomic Energy Agency is working to gain access to inspect 
these sites today, thanks to Israel's discovery.
  But what did Dr. Kahl say about Israel's discovery at that time? He 
was skeptical, and he added: ``This sure has an eerie pre-2003 Iraqi 
vibe to it.'' In other words, rather than being alarmed about the fact 
that Iran had many undeclared nuclear sites, Dr. Kahl alleged that 
Israel was trying to goad America into war.
  Somehow, for Dr. Kahl the problem is never Iran or the weak 2015 Iran 
deal that didn't cover the nuclear sites that Israel revealed. He wants 
to give Iran massive sanctions relief to return to that deal. No, for 
Dr. Kahl the problem is Israel, especially when our Israeli friends 
reveal information about Iran's nefarious behavior.
  Again, this isn't about a policy disagreement. This is about whether 
Dr. Kahl is someone who can accept facts, even when those facts 
undercut his policy preferences.
  National security is a bipartisan priority. It always has been and 
always

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will be. As I said at the beginning of this, traditionally, nominees 
for key DOD roles receive bipartisan support in the Senate. In fact, I 
can't recall a single nominee for a top DOD position in the past 40 
years who didn't garner at least one vote from the other party--either 
party.
  Now, I hope President Biden keeps this in mind as he staffs the rest 
of his administration. We need nominees who will work with Members on 
both sides of the aisle, and those Members have to trust that person in 
return. Moving forward, I would urge President Biden to listen to his 
own calls for bipartisanship and unity and send us nominees who could 
be approved without controversy.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. CARPER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to be able to 
complete my remarks before the vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered