Motion to Discharge--S.J. Res 44

Floor Speech

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Mr. RISCH. Mr. President, I rise in opposition to my friend's motion to discharge this from our committee.

Let me start where he left off. He is asking that we remove our troops from hostilities in Niger. Let me say this as clearly as I can: We have no troops involved in hostilities in Niger. If we did, this would be a big deal and this place would be full and we would be talking about combat operations. We do not have that.

The United States is not involved in combat operations in Niger. We do conduct focused intelligence operations to protect our troops in the region as well as our partners and allies and, most importantly, to monitor threats.

It is inaccurate to equate routine security assistance in counterterrorism operations and monitoring with involvement in hostilities. This incorrect assumption threatens U.S. security assistance around the globe.

A swift U.S. withdrawal from Niger, as proposed in this resolution, would weaken our regional reconnaissance efforts to monitor terrorist activities, which, of course, are in the national security interests of the United States of America and all American citizens. It would also leave the door open for Russia to come in and take over our facilities.

In early 2023, AFRICOM Commander Gen. Michael Langley told Congress that ``Africa is the epicenter of international terrorism,'' an understatement, at best, and something we all knew. Since then, the threat has nothing but grown against U.S. interests and partners in the Sahel. As it has grown, Iran and the Wagner Group, backed by the Kremlin, seek to exploit Sahel's weakness by aligning with military juntas.

Despite the recent coup in Niger weakening the country's security, invoking U.S. restrictions on aid, Niger remains vital for Western counterterrorism in the Sahel and for observation purposes.

America cannot be the policemen of the world, but that does not mean we should not have observation posts, we should not do counterintelligence and national security monitoring, and it doesn't mean that we shouldn't do intelligence operations.

With all due respect to my friend, I know that this is well- intentioned, but the result would be very negative for U.S. national security.

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Mr. RISCH. Mr. President, very briefly to respond to my good friend from Kentucky, first of all, we are not conducting drone strikes out of Niger. We have not. We are not. We will not.

As far as the four troops who were killed in 2017, the good Senator knows that was well investigated; it was not during combat operations that they were killed that U.S. troops were involved in. It was a one- off that certainly was accidental. We are not engaged in hostilities or combat in Niger.

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