Relating to A National Emergency Declared By the President on February 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, I rise to talk a little bit about the emergency declaration by the President. It is a bad idea. I think everybody in this body knows it is a bad idea, and we will see how many people will vote to override that bad idea. It is a bad idea for a number of reasons.

The President says it is for this country's safety, but he is robbing from our military to build a wall on the southern border. Yet, I might add, most of the money that we allocated in the last fiscal year is still there--$1.3 billion--plus the $1.375 billion that was authorized by the conference committee, made up of a group of Democrats and Republicans from the House and the Senate, which means it was passed by both bodies. It was money that he received but to which he said ``I don't like it'' and declared an emergency declaration.

Look, Montana is no stranger to military service. We are home to the second-most veterans per capita of any State in the country. Every time our Nation is in need, Montanans step up to the plate and answer the call to serve. That is why, today, I rise to fight back against the President's declaration, for it will be shortchanging our troops in favor of a campaign promise to build a wall that he said Mexico would pay for.

The President's plan to raid our military resources would directly hurt Montana's military community and its men and women in uniform. The heart of the Air Force's Global Strike Command is located in Great Falls, MT, at Malmstrom Air Force Base. The 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom is a critical component of our Nation's nuclear triad. It is our great deterrent against adversaries who would do us harm. As President Kennedy said, it is our ace in the hole.

Over the past few years, I have been fighting to secure the military construction dollars on the Appropriations Committee to meet the needs of the Malmstrom Air Force Base. I led a bipartisan effort to deliver more than $19 million to construct a new Tactical Response Force Alert Facility. That facility was a top priority for Malmstrom because the current facility is old, laden with asbestos and lead-based paint, and this has complicated efforts to secure the base's missile sites.

I also helped to secure some $14.6 million for the construction of a missile maintenance dispatch facility. This facility will allow the base to more properly and efficiently store critical components and equipment for the missile field and to retrofit its hangar so we can ultimately house the replacement fleet for its Vietnam-era Hueys, which should be replaced in the next couple of years. Unfortunately, the construction of these facilities and of many others around the country is at risk because of the President's decision.

More alarmingly, Malmstrom is in critical need of a weapons generation facility, and I have been fighting for years to ensure that this project is included among the Air Force's top military construction priorities. Just yesterday, the Secretary of the Air Force confirmed that the funding for the facility has been included in the fiscal year 2020 Air Force budget request. This investment represents a significant step forward for Malmstrom Air Force Base, for the Air Force, and for our national security. It is important because this is where ICBM warheads are maintained and stored.

As a result of the deterioration of this facility, airmen and missileers must confront numerous safety and security challenges while carrying out their missions every day. Yet now we have to tell them that this critical project, which the Air Force has said it desperately needs and which it does desperately need, could very well get kicked down the road and down the list of priorities because the President would rather spend billions of the military construction money on the construction of his wall.

The same is true for other critical infrastructure investments at Malmstrom, including a new security forces compound, but the President doesn't care. He is more interested in robbing taxpayer funds to build an unnecessary wall on the southern border, but Congress has rejected the President's request on a bipartisan basis. His defiance of that rejection comes at the expense of my State's defense installations.

Great Falls is also home to the Montana Air National Guard. My older brother was in the Air Guard for 35 years, and I have seen their work up close. Since we entered the Middle East conflict 17 years ago, this country has used the Guard like never before. They have asked a lot of our citizen soldiers and airmen, and they have always delivered whether that be when they were deploying to war, fighting against wildfires, or saving families from natural disasters.

In Montana, they have asked for little in return. They have asked for the construction of a new aircraft apron to park and store the Guard's C-130 fleet. Once again, we got to work, and we secured the money--$9 million--to make sure that our C-130s would stay in good shape for years to come. Max Baucus and I fought hard to bring those C-130s to Montana, which is why I am so outraged that the President's emergency declaration puts this funding at risk. I know that nobody in this body takes the decision of sending young men and women to war lightly, but when those difficult decisions are made, we had better deploy them with the best and the safest equipment.

The debate today is clear: A vote against the President's disaster declaration is a vote to protect our coequal branches of government, our system of checks and balances, and our Constitution. A vote for the President's power grab is a vote for Federal overreach and is a violation of our oath of office.

I hope my colleagues who vote for this plan are on the first plane back home to explain to their constituents why they are shirking their basic duties. I hope they explain to their communities--and there are many like Great Falls, MT--why they are ripping those investments out of their towns and out of our military. I hope they explain to our future leaders why it is OK to follow the Constitution only when it is expedient.

This disaster declaration undermines the bipartisan work that the Republicans and Democrats have done to rebuild our military. It sets a dangerous precedent that, no doubt, will be abused by future Presidents, and everybody in this body knows that.

We have an option here. We have the ability to stand with our troops and to stand with the Constitution and reject this declaration. It is critically important if we are going to have a strong military. I think we decided in the last Congress to make investments into our military that were much needed, and now the President is pulling those dollars out. It is nothing short of ridiculous.

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