Sequestration

Floor Speech

Mr. WARNER. I thank the Senator from Oklahoma and wish him good travels.

I rise briefly today to point out one more time some of the ramifications of the policy I have repeatedly called stupidity on steroids, which is our sequestration policy. Word came out earlier this week from the Department of Defense that the Secretary, to meet his sequestration numbers, is going to have to furlough teachers in Department of Defense schools for 5 days and education support personnel for 11 days.

Many of us on the floor of the Senate stand and praise our men and women who serve in the military, who defend our freedoms. I cannot think of anything that is more of an antithesis to those words we say, that we would praise their service, if we say: Yes, you go off and defend our Nation in Iraq and Afghanistan; meanwhile, your families and your children cannot go to school.

What makes this particularly difficult to stomach at this point is just today, Blue Star Families--one of our Nation's best veterans organizations, veterans support group organizations--came out and said in a list of priorities for military families, No. 1, the impact of deployments, repeated deployments on military families and particularly children; and, No. 2, military children education.

In my State and many other States, military families, particularly on base, have a military DOD school. Those schools provide a valuable service to those military families oftentimes who have their parents deployed. In my mind, how can we stand on the floor of this Senate and commend those men and women who serve and at the same time say we support that service: We want to support you at home, but not enough to not have your kids have to miss 5 days of school because their teachers are furloughed or providers of other support services for educational personnel are furloughed for 11 days.

I am going to write Secretary Hagel, and I ask that all of my colleagues join with me in this matter in urging that the furloughs of these educators who educate the children of our military families be exempted from the process of sequestration.

While it begs the large question that the Nation confronts a $16 trillion debt, I think most of us in this Chamber know that the only way we are going to get to a solution is if those of us on this side of the aisle find a way to make smart and sensible reforms to our entitlement programs. Our colleagues on the opposite side of the aisle are going to have to work with us to find ways to generate additional revenues; otherwise, we are going to keep coming back to the kinds of cuts we have seen in sequestration and in domestic discretionary.

We are on a current path that would take domestic discretionary spending from 16 percent of our Federal spending down to 4 percent. As a business investor, I would never invest in a business that spent less than 5 percent of its resources on its workforce and infrastructure.

So today I rise on the issue of making sure we actually honor those military families of whom we speak so often and make sure their kids get to go to school next year and don't have to lose valuable educational time because their teachers are furloughed. I hope my colleagues will join me on the letter to Secretary Hagel.

With that, I yield the floor, and I thank the Senator from Texas for his courtesy.

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