Water Resources Development Act of 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. LANKFORD. I am glad to be a part of this colloquy and to talk about what is happening during this conversation. It is not just Tinker. There are multiple major bases in Oklahoma.

It is extremely important that we continue to maintain a strong national defense. In fact, by a margin of 54 percent to 31 percent, Americans believe President Obama's flawed Iran deal has made the United States less safe. This is a major issue for all Americans. People want to know that they are kept safe, that their government is actually engaged. It is the primary responsibility of the Federal Government to deal with national defense. Regardless of party, people want to live in safe neighborhoods. Regardless of party, people want their families to grow up in a world that is as safe as it can possibly be.

In case anyone has missed the obvious, there are a lot of very bad people around the world who hate our freedom, who hate our values, and who hate American leadership. When America is strong, our deterrent stays strong and it stays clear. The last thing we want is thugs, dictators, and terrorists around the world challenging us, assuming that we are weak. That leads to the loss of American life, and it leads to instability around the world.

This administration and the decisions they have made have made us weaker as a nation and have demonstrated to us as a nation that we are not as strong as we once were. That leads to that great instability, and one of those areas where it leads to great instability is when this Congress stumbles in its support for our military. Six times in 18 months our Democratic colleagues have filibustered the Defense appropriations bill, which should be the easiest of all the appropriations bills to walk through.

I serve on the Committee on Appropriations. I was there when all the debate was happening in the committee. We passed it unanimously out of committee. Yet when it comes to the floor, it gets filibustered. You see, the basic rules of the Senate are--as this body knows extremely well--that we have to have three-fifths of the body to open debate on a bill. It passes by a simple majority, but we have to have 60 people of the 100 here to agree to start it. As long as the other side decides they do not want to debate an issue, we are literally stuck and can't even open debate on something as basic and that should be as nonpartisan as Defense appropriations.

So what are we facing right now while all this is happening? Well, we face a very unstable world that has become more unstable, as I mentioned before, because of some of the attitudes and actions of the administration. The President's failure to enforce his own redline in Syria has led to instability throughout the Middle East, as no one knows where the lines are for anyone. Making a statement like ``they won't use chemical weapons,'' when every year since 2013 the Syrian Government has used chlorine gas on its own people, had our administration responding with: Well, that is not crossing the redline because chlorine was exempted from this deal. They couldn't use other chemical weapons, but they could gas their own people with chlorine. That makes absolutely no sense to anyone. The Syrians have continued to use chlorine gas on their people year after year, mocking the President's redline and diminishing American leadership around the world.

In Russia, they continue to be on the move, with their own cyber attacks into Ukraine and into the Crimea. There is their leadership in Syria and the latest cease-fire, in fact, which Secretary Kerry and President Obama just negotiated with Russia and which favored Russia's position and is retaining Assad's leadership, giving Russia time to rearm. In fact, sitting down with Russia now and having to agree with Russia on places where we would have attacks puts Russia clearly in the lead of what is happening in Syria.

It is fascinating for me to think that just 4 years ago the President of the United States mocked Mitt Romney as he talked about Russia as a major threat. President Obama flippantly laughed and said to Mitt Romney: Hey, the 1980s are calling you. We don't have a Cold War with the Soviets anymore. Well, somehow I don't think anyone would say that now, as everyone sees Russia on the move.

North Korea continues to test missiles and nuclear weapons. China continues its aggression through territorial expansion in the South China Sea. Cyber terrorism continues to increase from areas all around the world. ISIS is expanding its reach around the world in what it calls its provinces. The administration continues to say that the territory of ISIS is decreasing. But it is also quietly saying that their expansion around the world is increasing.

This is an unstable time in an unstable season, and it is a moment when we should all engage on some of the most basic things, like national defense. This body should be able to sit down and have an actual open debate on national defense and how that would actually happen.

Do I need to remind us about what Iran has done in just the past year? It is helping to organize a coup in Yemen, destabilizing Bahrain as much as they possibly can, engaging in propping up Assad in Syria, and partnering with Russia to launch attacks with Russian bombers leaving from Iran to go in and do attacks. All of this they continue to do as they expand.

As this government struggles with funding our government, the President of the United States sent $1.7 billion in cash to the Iranian Government. It is the ultimate irony--the ultimate irony--that at a time when the President and our Democratic colleagues don't want to fund the U.S. military, they sent three planeloads full of cash to the Iranian military so they could operate theirs.

This is why we stand here as freshmen and say this may be the normal Senate process, but it makes no sense to the American people. How can planes full of cash be sent to the Iranian military and they are not spending here?

Let me just give you some perspective. As the President looks out from his front window at the White House, he sees the Washington Monument directly in front of him, and $1.7 billion in $1 bills would be the equivalent of 1,097 Washington Monuments stacked up--1,097 Washington Monuments stacked up is $1.7 billion. That is what we just shipped to Iran.

Why do we think this is important? Because we believe national security is important and protecting America is important. A flippant conversation years ago where Secretary Clinton said that Assad's time is almost done--that was 5 years ago--the President's redline, the failure to be able to fund our military on time demonstrates that we need to be more serious about national security. This is the issue the American people want us to deal with, and this is the one we need to deal with.

With that, I appreciate the leadership of Senator Daines in this area, and I thank him for allowing me to join in this conversation on the Senate floor on something that is extremely important to all of us.

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