[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 22077-22079]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



 NOMINATION OF R.L. BROWNLEE OF VIRGINIA TO BE UNDER SECRETARY OF THE 
                                  ARMY

  Mr. WARNER. I express my appreciation to our distinguished acting 
majority leader tonight for his courtesy. Senator Levin has now joined 
me on the floor. I defer to the chairman to lead off.
  Mr. LEVIN. I think it is particularly appropriate, given the very 
special relationship Senator Warner has had in particular with Les 
Brownlee, for him to lead off. I will just add a few comments to what 
the Senator says.
  Mr. WARNER. I thank my good friend and chairman, Mr. Levin. We have 
served 23 years together, and throughout this day we met four or five 
times on the conference report and other matters. It is an 
extraordinary opportunity to serve America with such fine people as 
Senator Levin, Senator Reid, and others.
  Anyway, to the matter at hand.
  Madam President, I will start off. I wish to address the Senate with 
regard to the nomination by the President of the United States, of 
Colonel Les Brownlee, United States Army, Retired.
  I cannot in words express my gratitude to this wonderful American for 
his service to the Senate, to the Committee on the Armed Services, and 
to me personally over these 18 years that he has been a Member of the 
Senate family and organization.

[[Page 22078]]

  When I introduced him to the committee today, I reflected that some 
32 years ago I sat in the same seat before the committee. Senator 
Thurmond was a member of the Committee, and I believe Senator Byrd may 
well have been a Member at that time; I would like to check the record 
on that. But there I was as a young man taking on the job as Under 
Secretary of the Navy, as my dear friend Colonel Brownlee is now taking 
on the job as Under Secretary of the Army.
  The war at that time was raging in Vietnam. A war tonight is raging 
beyond our shores, in the area of Afghanistan, where men and women of 
the Armed Forces are risking their lives. So he joins the Department of 
Defense at a critical time, as did I.
  While I came up sort of through the political ranks, he came up 
through the ranks as a professional soldier and 18 years of service to 
the Senate. It was on those qualifications that I was privileged to 
recommend him to the President. The recommendation was accepted and 
tonight he was confirmed by the Senate.
  It is an important day for Les Brownlee. It is an important day for 
the Senate and for our committee. I may say that his son, John, and his 
daughter, Tracy, and other family members are present at this time.
  Les has a distinguished career in the U.S. Army. He served in 
Vietnam. Our periods somewhat overlapped. For 5 years and 4 months I 
was in the Pentagon. During that period, or prior thereto, Les won the 
Silver Star with Oakleaf Cluster. That means two Silver Stars. He won 
the Bronze Star with two Oakleaf Clusters. That means three Bronze 
Stars. And, he won the Purple Heart.
  Les and I have a very close personnel relationship. We've traveled 
the world together on behalf of the Senate Armed Services Committee. 
There are times when we have strongly disagreed on subjects. At those 
times, we go into a room; he takes off his colonel's insignia and I 
take off the U.S. Senate insignia, and we have at it. Most often we 
reach a mutual decision. Occasionally, Judy Ansley, who moves up from 
Deputy to Staff Director, has arbitrated our disputes. Nevertheless, 
we've had a marvelous relationship in which he's given me the 
unvarnished truth and advice.
  Les Brownlee's record and knowledge about the Department of the Army 
is second to none. It is extraordinary. He returns to the service of 
the Army, an organization for which he expressed his love today in 
those very words, at a time when the Army is going through a very 
significant period of transition--transitioning in a manner to 
recognize the changed world in which we live. That world was beginning 
to change long before September 11 of this year.
  Our committee has been working with the previous Secretaries of the 
Army and Defense, and previous Army Chiefs of Staff. It has been a long 
evolution. But largely, under the current Chief of Staff and the 
current Secretary of the Army, one of the major elements of that 
transformation will take place, and Les Brownlee will be right there to 
assist and to provide the knowledge.
  He sent a note of humor about how he is in all probability returning 
to the very same office from whence he departed, to come to the Senate, 
18 years ago having served as the principal military aid to the then-
Under Secretary of the Army. What a fascinating coincidence.
  He will also be entrusted with the issues involving homeland defense. 
The Department of the Army has a very special mission in this area.
  Fortunately, the Senate Armed Services Committee established some 
years ago a subcommittee to take over certain responsibilities on 
emerging threats as best we could see them at that time. None of us 
could envision the events of September 11. Nevertheless our committee, 
under my chairmanship, following with the chairmanship of our 
distinguished Senator from Michigan, we continued that work.
  Les takes great credit, together with other staff members, in laying 
out the platforms and the goals of that subcommittee which we achieved 
in large measure.
  I also think, very clearly with a sense of humility, that he 
exemplifies the extraordinary quality of individuals who come to the 
Senate to work as staff members. He just gives those people 
inspiration. As that room was filled today in the hearing, you could 
see in their hearts and their minds--there were probably 30 to 40 of 
them assembled there--that someday any one of them could be sitting 
where he is.
  We are privileged in our committee to have had a number of our staff 
members move on into Presidential appointments in both administrations, 
Republican and Democrat.
  So it is a great day. Chairman Levin presided over it with his usual 
dignity and feeling.
  At this moment, I yield the floor so that perhaps he can add his own 
observations.
  We are joined in the Chamber by a very fine staff person, Judy 
Ansley, who, as I noted earlier, will succeed Les as Chief of Staff. 
Mrs. Ansley has been his Deputy for a number of years. I am pleased to 
recognize her presence here today.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from Michigan.
  Mr. LEVIN. Thank you, Madam President. I thank Senator Warner.
  When my career here is over and I look back on it, one of the real 
highlights will always be that I came with Senator Warner and that we 
have served together on the Armed Services Committee--both as chairman, 
always as friends, always with total trust, not always with total 
agreement, but always having our singular goal of a bipartisan security 
policy for this Nation.
  Senator Warner has been an extraordinary member of that committee. I 
watched him through the years as he has pulled together people with 
diverse views to reach a common goal.
  It was a pleasure to join with him as he recommended to the President 
the nomination of Les Brownlee to be Under Secretary of the Army.
  It is always a special day for the committee when one of our staff is 
nominated to a high position in the executive branch. This is a special 
day for us.
  We hate to lose Les. He has been of tremendous and inestimable value 
in the committee and to both sides of the aisle when we bring our bills 
to the floor.
  This is a committee that I think sets the standard for how we should 
operate in a bipartisan manner in this Senate. It has always had that 
tradition. Senator Warner maintained that tradition beautifully. I seek 
to emulate that kind of a role model that he and many Senators before 
him set when they were chairmen of that very special committee.
  Les will be leaving us. He will be crossing the Potomac. He will be 
back in his beloved Army. I can't think of anyone better qualified to 
serve in that position than Les because of the experience, which 
Senator Warner has outlined, and what Les brings to the job his 
commitment, spirit, and love for the Army. We always rely on our staff 
to give us their total loyalty and their total commitment. Les is 
surely a shining example of that. But first and foremost, that loyalty 
is to this country. Les has always shown that loyalty.
  The staff director for the majority, David Lyles, is also on the 
floor, as are other members of the Armed Services Committee staff. Not 
only have we looked to Les for unvarnished and straight advice, we have 
always looked to him and David Lyles when they were staff directors, 
first, for the majority, and then for the minority, to work together to 
bring the committee a joint bill that we could all support and that 
would help bring us together.
  Our staffs have not only given us advice and guidance, they have 
truly been instrumental in making this committee a bipartisan example 
of what security policy should be and what this Senate strives to be, 
whether it is in the area of defense or any other area.
  I noted what Senator Warner said about Les returning perhaps 
physically to the same office that he left. I understand he was the 
military executive to the Under Secretary of the Army. The very 
position that he was the executive to will now be filled by him. So 
there is

[[Page 22079]]

a certain symmetry, and a certain wonderful roundness, to Les's 
confirmation.
  As Senator Warner said, we are now engaged in a military campaign. 
Colonel Brownlee was engaged in Vietnam. He served two tours in Vietnam 
with extraordinary distinction and heroism. He brings to this current 
challenge an experience that is invaluable so that we do not repeat the 
mistakes that were made in Vietnam, and so that we avoid any of the 
pitfalls that faced us as a nation in that war in which so many men and 
women served so valiantly, with so much honor, and with not nearly 
enough reward or recognition by their own countrymen back here at home.
  What Les brings to this current challenge is of tremendous value. I 
know, as Senator Warner said, that we speak for every member of our 
committee and for our staffs when we say how proud we are of Les. We 
are proud of not only what he has done for the committee, but we also 
are very confident of what he will do for the Army and for the Nation 
in his new capacity.
  We wish him all the best. We know we will see a lot of him. To him 
and his family, we can only say we are sad to see him go, but we are 
surely glad that he will occupy the position that he will assume. This 
nation is safer because it will be in his hands.
  I thank the Chair.
  Mr. WARNER. Madam President, I thank my very valued and long time 
special friend, the Senator from Michigan, for his very kind remarks. I 
reciprocate with equal feelings toward him.
  We struggle together, and we are going to succeed. We have a big 
mission ahead of us in this committee with this conflict. We are behind 
our President. We want to give him that type of support, and the men 
and women of the Armed Forces fighting this engagement.
  In relation to what the Senator stated, it was Under Secretary James 
Ambrose with whom Les served.
  I appreciate Senator Levin singling out his combat record. The men 
and women of the Armed Forces, across the board, are trained to go into 
combat situations. Relatively few of them, however, certainly in recent 
years, because of the nature of combat, are put into those positions.
  I was combat trained in World War II, but I did not go into combat. I 
did visit the battlefields more than once in Korea, but my military 
career pales in the face of Les Brownlee's and those of the men and 
women who have really gotten into the thick of it, have been tested, 
and proved not only to survive, but continue their leadership. They 
have earned the recognition of their peer group through their personal 
decorations.
  I have a tremendous amount of respect for Colonel Brownlee and, 
indeed, for many other Members of the Senate with whom I have been 
privileged to serve in the past and today who have earned those 
decorations.
  While we acknowledge the long list of Colonel Brownlee's accolades, 
we recognize that the challenges of life are most successfully 
accomplished as a team effort. Colonel Brownlee's family have shared 
the challenges and rewards of both his professional military career and 
his career in the Senate. The journey which brought Colonel Brownlee to 
this prestigious nomination would not have been possible without the 
unconditional and loving support of his family.
  From the first day that Les and I began working together, he has 
always been guided by what he thought was in the best interest of our 
Nation's security, the best interest of the men and women of our Armed 
Forces, and in the best interest of the Senate. On behalf of a grateful 
nation, we congratulate Les on his nomination and thank him for his 
service to the United States Senate. Les brings a special dimension to 
the Army secretariat, and we wish him well.
  I thank my colleague.
  Madam President, I think that concludes the matters, and we can go to 
the standing order.

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