[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 52 (Saturday, March 21, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Page S1472]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                  Iran

  Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. President, it has been a long weekend up here. We 
have a lot of balls in the air. We have DHS funding. We have the SAVE 
Act and a war going on in the Middle East. All these are demanding our 
attention simultaneously.
  I would like to shed a little light here. What makes this job 
generally challenging isn't the workload. I worked much harder as an 
obstetrician delivering a baby most every day, at least every other 
night if not every night of the every week. It is when you are trying 
to have serious policy conversations up here and you are up against 
misinformation, moving goalposts, and arguments that seem completely 
detached from the facts on the ground. The frustration can be 
exhausting. But today, I decided to start with the easy stuff.
  Let's talk about Iran. First of all, I want to mourn the loss of the 
13 soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice and let their Gold Star 
families know that we are grateful for the price their loved ones paid 
and that we will be there for them as they go through their mourning.
  I want to praise the military, let them know I stand beside them, 
that our family stands beside them. My dad served. My brother served. I 
served. My son is serving. We support our military, and we salute the 
incredible job they are doing.
  Now, as we all know, President Trump had four basic goals when the 
war started. Don't let the legacy media confuse you. The four basic 
goals are basically to end Iran's ability to have missiles and navy 
nukes and destroy Iran's ability to fund an armed terrorist.
  I would say we are 90 percent there. I am not on the Intelligence 
Committee. I don't have the inside numbers. But it looks like to me we 
are 90 percent there. Now, I warn folks that the last 10 percent may be 
as hard as the first 90 percent. But they are doing an incredible job, 
and we want to do everything we can to make them successful so that we 
are safe for decades to come.