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Floor Speech

Mr. President, Mr. Keohane has been nominated to be the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, which is the senior leadership role in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. This is the very office responsible for the Department of Defense's abortion travel policy.

I have been very clear with the Pentagon since the day that I placed a hold on Mr. Keohane that I would be happy to release it if Secretary Austin would rescind this abhorrent policy.

This policy has been politicized. It has politicized the military. It has harmed the institutional norms of our country.

Beyond the clear violation of basic morality, Congress never authorized the Department to use taxpayer funds to facilitate elective abortions. Now for the Biden administration to begin such a policy and use taxpayer resources to aid in the taking of unborn life, it defies the will of Congress. And it violates the spirit--if not the letter--of the law. Now taxpayers--many of whom have deeply held religious and moral objections to abortions--they are on the hook to facilitate the very abortions that they fundamentally oppose.

Worse yet, the Pentagon's stated reason for issuing the policy was that the Supreme Court Dobbs decision had ``readiness, recruiting, and retention implications.'' This is total nonsense. The Pentagon was, and is still able, to provide any data or evidence to support their claim. For the administration to cling to this policy is just wrong.

At the end of the day, whether it was the hundreds of holds from my colleague from Alabama or my hold on Mr. Koehane, the reason to resolve and the power to resolve this situation, it begins and ends with the power of one man, and that is Secretary Lloyd Austin. With the stroke of a pen, Secretary Austin can fix this situation and end the impasse. It is time for him to do the right thing and to rescind the policy now.

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