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Floor Speech

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Ms. HASSAN. Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues and share my deep concern and outrage regarding Senator Tuberville's decision to block the promotions of hundreds of servicemembers. I want to take a moment and share why I believe this action weakens our national security, hurts our servicemembers who are in harm's way, ignores the wishes of the American people, and betrays our country's bipartisan commitment to our servicemembers.

By blocking the promotions of hundreds of servicemembers, the Senator from Alabama is preventing our military from being properly staffed and led. This diminishes our military's effectiveness and combat-readiness.

Senator Tuberville has told us that he is doing this not because he has any concern with these officers' ability to command; instead, Senator Tuberville tells us he is blocking these promotions simply to advance a personal political agenda to take away reproductive freedom from female servicemembers.

It is not only outrageous but bitterly ironic that, while the Senator from Alabama trusts women in uniform to defend our country, while he trusts them to keep all of us safe, while he trusts them to risk their lives for our freedom, he does not trust them to make their own healthcare decisions.

Senator Tuberville's decision to block these promotions not only hurts female servicemembers, it makes America less safe.

What did Senator Tuberville even accomplish by what is truly a reckless stunt? Can my colleague from Alabama explain how blocking promotions for servicemembers strengthens our national security?

What kind of message do we send to our allies and our adversaries that America's combat readiness can be undermined because of one Senator's partisan stunt?

And can he tell us why the health, safety, and daily lives of servicemembers are less important than his own personal and political agenda?

Our brave men and women in uniform put their lives on the line in order to protect our freedoms. We could not freely assemble here in this Chamber without their dedication and sacrifice. There simply is no U.S. Senate without the service of our Armed Forces. Our servicemembers place their trust in us to ensure that they are properly supported, including by being sufficiently staffed and led.

Let me be very, very clear: Senator Tuberville's actions mark nothing less than an abdication and betrayal of that trust.

It is also clear that in pushing this personal partisan agenda, the Senator from Alabama is deeply out of step with the majority of Americans. He is not representing the American people. I know--as I think all of us do--that Americans, regardless of their views or political party, share a common love of country. We stand united in support of our servicemembers because our servicemembers do not risk their lives for red States or blue; they fight for the freedom of all Americans, and they deserve the support of all Americans.

Bipartisan support for servicemembers has exemplified our country at our best. No issue, no matter how important, should stand in the way of ensuring that our military has the support and leadership that it needs to succeed.

I was reminded of this in April, when I was on a congressional delegation trip and visiting the Northern Command out in Colorado Springs. I met with one of the people who Senator Kelly talked about, Rear Admiral Cheever. He hosted the visit, and he coordinated it. I had a wonderful briefing from him and his leadership team about issues of cyber security, about our quantum readiness.

As you heard Senator Kelly say, Rear Admiral Cheever has been nominated to become a vice admiral and command the Naval Air Force of the U.S. Pacific Fleet--even more responsibility. He is ready to do it. The Senator from Alabama doesn't disagree that he is ready to do it. But as we left that day, he told me that his promotion was in limbo because of the hold that our colleague from Alabama has put on his promotion.

We need him in that position. He and his family and his fellow service men and women need him in that position and are waiting for the Senator from Alabama.

It is fitting that we are discussing this issue on July 26, for it was on July 26, 1947, that the National Security Act of 1947 was signed into law. This law established the Defense Department, an institution with officers whose promotions the Senator from Alabama is blocking today. This law was passed with overwhelming support from leaders of both parties.

In 1947, of course, the Senate was full of debates and even bitter disagreements on all sorts of issues, just as it is today. But Senators understood that while we can debate all day on any number of issues, we owed it to our servicemembers and the American people to stand united in our efforts to support our military and to keep Americans safe, secure, and free.

In the same manner, our military works together despite their own personal differences or political views. My father served in World War II and survived the Battle of the Bulge. He told me that the members of his unit came from all sorts of different backgrounds. They, no doubt, held many different views, but on the battlefield, those differences weren't important. What mattered was their common bond as Americans, their common love of country, and their common commitment to freedom.

What my father's generation did and what our servicemembers do every day is nothing less than extraordinary. Compared to their courage, the political and dangerous game that Senator Tuberville is playing seems very, very small.

No Senator, no matter their party, has the right to put their personal and political agenda ahead of our national security and our servicemembers' freedom and safety. I urge my Republican colleagues to join me in opposing Senator Tuberville's efforts to undermine our bipartisan commitment to our servicemembers and our national security because, ultimately, this kind of reckless, partisan game does not reflect who we are as Americans.

On distant battlefields and in faraway places, thousands of miles from their homes, our brave men and women in uniform risk their lives and confront great dangers so that all of us--including my colleague from Alabama--can be safe, secure, and free. While my colleague stands in the way of promotions, our servicemembers stand in the way of our greatest foes.

We can't ever repay the debt that we owe those who served, but we owe them nothing less than our full support, and that starts with ending this reckless stunt, uniting as Americans, and advancing these overdue promotions.

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