Issue Position: National Security

Issue Position

Defeating ISIS and Keeping America Safe

The most solemn responsibility of the federal government is to protect its people. In order to fulfill this obligation, Congress and the President need to provide for a strong military, ensuring that our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines, and those serving in the Guard and Reserves, can count on the most advanced tools and technologies necessary. At the same time, we need to maintain and build upon our military footprint throughout the world.

During discussions that President Obama had with Cuban President Raul Castro regarding the normalization of relations between our two countries, the idea of ceding United States Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to Cuba was raised. Handing over this military installation would be ill-advised, as it's key to our broader U.S. defense policy and plays an important role in fighting drug and human trafficking, providing humanitarian assistance during crises and natural disasters, and supporting other operations essential to the U.S and our neighboring countries. I've introduced legislation, which was later included in the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, that ensures Naval Station Guantanamo Bay remains a vital military asset of ours.

We as a country have understandably become a war weary nation after over a decade of conflict. However, we must not allow our weariness to become apathy when barbaric forces, such as ISIS, kills Americans and our allies, and threatens our national security interests. President Obama's foreign and domestic security policies have failed us, leaving America and her people vulnerable to attack.

Let it be clear, we are a nation at war. ISIS is not contained, Iran is using the instability in the Middle East and Northern Africa to expand its oppressive reach, and Russia continues to take advantage of our President's weakness and inaction.

There are four ways that we can immediately restore security to our homeland and remind the world that we are the preeminent superpower. First, we need to dramatically enhance our military operations overseas by deploying U.S. special operators. It's critical that we fight, defeat, and destroy our enemy on their soil before they come to ours.

Secondly, we need to secure the border. It's time that we achieve operational control of our coastlines, our southwest border, and our northern border. Next, let's strengthen the vetting of anyone who wishes to enter the country legally, be it those who wish to naturalize as Americans, those who wish to come here through our visa program, or those who wish to come here through our refugee resettlement program. We need to ensure that nobody gets through that can ever cause harm to the United States.
Lastly, we need to dramatically increase the surveillance of those who we know have become homegrown terror suspects in our own communities throughout the United States.

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