[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 144 (Tuesday, September 17, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6073-S6074]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           National Security

  Mr. President, perhaps the most important thing we do here in 
Congress is to provide for our Nation's defense. I have said it before, 
and I will say it again: If we don't get national security right, the 
rest is just conversation. Everything else we do in government and our 
very existence as a nation depends on our getting security right.
  National security, Mr. President, is not a one-and-done kind of a 
situation. We can't rely on a one-time military buildup or the 
reputation we have earned as a superpower to keep our Nation safe. 
Tactics change, technology changes, weapons change, and reputations--
even strong ones--eventually change if they are not backed up with 
substance. Maintaining a robust national defense has to be a permanent 
focus, year in and year out. There is no time in which we can afford to 
put national security on the back burner or underfund our Nation's 
military--which brings me to where we are today.
  Mr. President, in July of this year, the Commission on the National 
Defense Strategy released its report. It had this to say:

       The Commission finds that the U.S. military lacks both the 
     capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can 
     deter and prevail in combat.

  Let me just repeat that.

       The Commission finds that the U.S. military lacks both the 
     capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can 
     deter and prevail in combat.


[[Page S6074]]


  Another quote from the Commission's report said this:

       The Commission finds that, in many ways, China is outpacing 
     the United States and has largely negated the U.S. military 
     advantage in the Western Pacific through two decades of 
     focused military investment. Without significant change by 
     the United States, the balance of power will continue to 
     shift in China's favor.

  Mr. President, from the Strategic Posture Commission report:

       Today the United States is on the cusp of having not one, 
     but two nuclear peer adversaries, each with ambitions to 
     change the international status quo, by force, if necessary: 
     a situation which the United States did not anticipate and 
     for which it is not prepared.

  Let me again say that: ``a situation which the United States did not 
anticipate and for which it is not prepared.''
  In short, we have work to do. We are not where we should be when it 
comes to our national defense. While our preparedness lags, the world 
isn't getting any safer. If anything, it is getting more dangerous.
  Over the course of the Biden-Harris administration, we have seen 
Russia invade the sovereign nation of Ukraine, China growing 
increasingly aggressive in the Pacific, a brutal terrorist attack on 
Israel that left more than 1,000 dead, terrorists threatening shipping 
in the Middle East--and the list literally goes on and on.
  This summer alone, Russian and Chinese bombers for the first time 
sortied together 200 miles off the coast of Alaska--an alarming display 
of the growing ties between those two nations. Taiwan reported 305 
airspace violations by Chinese aircraft in the month of June--the 
second highest monthly total on record. The Chinese continue to swarm 
and even collide with ships from the Philippines. Just 2 weeks ago, 
Japan for the first time reported an incursion of a Chinese aircraft 
into its airspace. In the Middle East, U.S. military members have 
continued to combat terrorists on land and Houthi attacks on U.S. ships 
and international shipping in the Red Sea.
  Hamas still holds upwards of 100 hostages in Gaza, including 7 
Americans. Iran has sent close-range ballistic missiles to Russia, 
presumably for use against the Ukrainian people. A Pakistani national 
with ties to Iran was charged with plotting the assassination of 
multiple U.S. politicians.
  I could go on.
  Given all of this, you would think Democrat leadership here in the 
Senate would have made our yearly Defense bills--the National Defense 
Authorization Act and our Defense appropriations bills which fund that 
act--a priority, but you would be wrong. We are 2 weeks away from the 
end of the fiscal year, and we haven't touched the National Defense 
Authorization Act since it was passed by the committee, much less 
touched the Defense appropriations bills.
  And it is not because we have been passing a bunch of other 
substantive pieces of legislation. Aside from the Kids Online Safety 
and Privacy Act, we have basically spent the entire summer confirming 
Biden nominees and taking show votes selected by the Democrat leader. 
As a result, the fiscal year will close and the new one begin without a 
Defense authorizing bill and without Defense appropriations bills. 
Instead, our military will have to continue operating under inadequate 
2024 funding levels. Existing modernization projects will be delayed, 
and urgent new programs will be put off.
  I haven't even talked about the message these delays send to our 
enemies. Anyone who thinks our enemies aren't emboldened by this 
careless attitude toward our national security needs to think again.
  For that matter, what message do these delays send to our allies? I 
recently returned from a trip to Japan and South Korea, led by my 
colleague Senator Hagerty, to build relationships and enhance 
trilateral cooperation. We stressed the imperative of investing in our 
mutual defense cooperation--a message that will be undercut by our 
putting defense legislation on the back burner. Likewise, our message 
to allies and partners around the world that they should take more 
seriously their own defense investments will be juxtaposed against our 
own inaction.
  Needless to say, it didn't have to be this way. If the Democrat 
leader had been more interested in meeting Congress's basic 
responsibilities than in conducting show votes he hopes may win 
Democrats a few votes in November, we could have already passed not 
only the National Defense Authorization Act but the Defense 
appropriations bill that funds that act as well. As it is, thanks to 
the decisions of the Democrat leader, our military will have to wait at 
least until after the election. Meanwhile, our adversaries' efforts 
continue.
  Mr. President, this isn't the first time in the Biden-Harris 
administration that Democrats have chosen to put our national defense 
on the back burner. While we don't know what the Senate or the 
Presidency will look like next year, I hope--I sincerely hope--that we 
will have leaders who take our national security a little more 
seriously because I suspect that if we don't, we will have cause--great 
cause--to regret it.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Padilla). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.