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Floor Speech
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Mr. HAWLEY. Madam President.
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Mr. HAWLEY. And let me give you a sense of why.
One of the nominees that my friend is attempting to move here, let's be clear, to do this without a vote--we could be voting on these nominees. The majority leader could schedule votes on them any time, but he hasn't done that. He hasn't done it in some of the cases for months.
This is an act--this is a request to suspend the regular order of the Senate and to confirm these nominees without a vote. Well, I, for one, am not going to consent to confirming without a vote people like Ravi Chaudhary. He is being nominated for Assistant Secretary of the Air Force.
Mr. Chaudhary, who appeared before the Armed Services Committee, on which I sit, as does my friend from Virginia--Mr. Chaudhary has proposed using AI technology--artificial intelligence--to track members of the military, identify them as extremists, and then have them expelled.
He said:
The key to disrupting them--
Meaning ``extremists,'' his word, people whose views he doesn't agree with.
The key to disrupting them is uncovering and understanding their initial behaviors, elements that are contained in their electronic footprints.
What Mr. Chaudhary has proposed to do is to use surveillance on members of the U.S. military to determine whether they might, in the future, commit acts that he might disapprove of and then to take action against these members of the military.
In 2015, he wrote this: that the military exhibits a ``culture of xenophobic cronyism.'' And he went on to say that there was a ``xenophobic command climate'' in the U.S. military today.
I said to Mr. Chaudhary, at the time when we had our hearing, that I cannot believe that he would propose to use surveillance on members of the U.S. military to track their speech, to track their activity online, to track their movements online, all in an effort to decide if they might, in the future, commit acts that he disagrees with.
I submit to you, Madam President, not only is that wrong; it is blatantly unconstitutional--blatantly unconstitutional--and it is frightening. What is further frightening is that he would be nominated for a leadership position in the Department of Defense.
I call on the President of the United States to withdraw this nomination today, just as he should withdraw his unconstitutional disinformation board that he is attempting to force on the American people as we speak. This is the most radically anti-free-speech administration in American history. Their actions are an affront to the basic constitutional values of this Nation, including and especially the First Amendment.
I am appalled--appalled--at what this administration is doing-- censoring American citizens, surveilling them--and now advocating it in the U.S. military, to the men and women who put their lives on the line?
So, no, I will not consent to have this individual, who never should have been nominated for this position, fast-tracked to be confirmed without a vote, without a single, solitary vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
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Mr. HAWLEY. I think you have the floor, Senator; so, yes, I think----
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Mr. HAWLEY. Can I respond to that?
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Mr. HAWLEY. On all eight of them, Senator?
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Mr. HAWLEY. To have a vote on the floor?
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Mr. HAWLEY. I would be happy to take a vote on the floor on all eight nominations.
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Mr. HAWLEY. Is this a recorded vote on the floor, Senator?
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Mr. HAWLEY. Senator, you want to vote on all eight at one time; you don't want to vote on each one?
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Mr. HAWLEY. What I propose to do here is--there are multiple Senators on this side of the aisle besides myself who have objections to different multiple of these. What I propose to do is object to this now, but I think we can work something out on this going forward.
So I think--do I have the floor now?
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Mr. HAWLEY. OK.
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