[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 16603-16604]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           ESTEVEZ NOMINATION

  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, yesterday, I voted to confirm Alan Estevez 
to be a Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense. In this important 
position, the second highest ranking acquisition official at DOD, Mr. 
Estevez will help oversee hundreds of billions of dollars in 
procurement during his tenure.
  I am eager to work with Mr. Estevez on an issue important to my State 
and our overall security strategy. Like my colleagues Senators 
Blumenthal and Cornyn have discussed, it is unacceptable to me that the 
Department of Defense is continuing the procurement of Mi-17 
helicopters from Rosoboronexport, Russia's official arms export firm.
  The reasons to stop this procurement are numerous, and, by contrast, 
the logic behind the continuation of this procurement is flawed.
  Not only is Rosoboronexport at the heart of an industry that Russia's 
own chief military prosecutor publicly stated is corrupt, but this 
company is also supplying the Assad regime in Syria. We are handing 
money--tax dollars from my constituents in Connecticut--to a company 
that is propping up a regime that is committing atrocities against its 
own people.
  I was outraged to learn that earlier this year that DOD awarded 
Rosoboronexport a $572 million contract for the procurement of 30 Mi-17 
helicopters for the Afghan Special Mission Wing, completely ignoring 
the recommendation of the Special Inspector General for Afghan 
Reconstruction, SIGAR, to halt this procurement.
  Even if DOD thinks that this procurement should go forward in light 
of the SIGAR recommendation, there is no credible reason that these 
helicopters should not be made in America. My constituents are tired of 
our procurement dollars going to overseas

[[Page 16604]]

firms, and this particular example is one of the most egregious.
  We have spent over $100 billion on equipment from overseas 
manufacturers in the last several years. When I talk to manufacturers 
in Connecticut who are churning out the most reliable and rugged 
military equipment in the world, including helicopters, they just can 
not understand why we are paying a corrupt Russian arms dealer for 
equipment we already make at home.
  I look forward to making my feelings known to Mr. Estevez and, as we 
did last year during the consideration of the National Defense 
Authorization Act, making it clear that this body does not approve of 
this Mi-17 procurement.

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