Imminent Threats to our National Security

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina for pulling us together.

Madam Speaker, when you talk about issues that are women's issues, right now national security is at the top of the heap.

As we have talked about soccer moms and Walmart moms and all of these other iterations and descriptions during the years, right now we are looking at a category of security moms because the issue of security is what mothers are talking about.

I appreciate so much the gentlewoman from North Carolina's leadership, and we have two other colleagues who have yet to join us--Ms. Ros-Lehtinen from Florida and Mrs. Lummis from Wyoming--to talk about this issue.

Coast to coast, this is what people are talking about, and they sit in disbelief at what this administration is doing.

Whether it is Iran or whether it is other foreign policy, our friends and allies look at us, as the gentlewoman from Alabama said, and they ask: ``What are you doing? Where have you been? What are you thinking?'' As we would say in Nashville, ``They have got a thinking problem.''

Our enemies look at us and say: ``Asleep at the wheel. This is our opportunity.'' That is exactly what Iran is doing, and they are looking at what we are doing to our military.

I thank the gentlewoman from Alabama for talking about her love for Fort Rucker and the men and women there. I know the gentlewoman probably sits down with those in her district at Fort Rucker, like I do with the families, with the leadership team, with the men and women in uniform at Fort Campbell, which is located in my district.

They are terribly concerned. They have a mission to fulfill, and it is despicable that this administration will continue to try to cut and cut and cut our military, cut the numbers, don't give them raises, don't give them all the tools and training, don't give them the Flying Hours Program that they need for redeployment.

Guess what, Madam Speaker. Every bit of that affects the effectiveness of our men and women in uniform.

The gentlewoman from Alabama will expand on the point of the cuts that are taking place at Fort Rucker and what that means to her constituents.

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. I do, indeed.

The gentlewoman makes a point that is so very important, the readiness and the ability to fight 21st-century warfare on a lot of different fronts.

Madam Speaker, my colleagues and I will say part of that is naming and knowing your enemy, radical Islamist extremists. That is the enemy, and that is one of the reasons that this deal that the President announced this morning is so terribly disturbing to us.

His advisors had said that no deal is better than a bad deal. Guess what. What we saw from the President this morning is a pretty bad deal.

Here is what Iran gets to keep in this deal: 5,060 centrifuges. It includes an 8-year limitation on uranium enrichment. Think about that, an 8-year limitation.

So, then, are we setting a time certain that Iran can move forward? This is something that our constituents and the American people need to know about.

Then you look at the other components of this, the IAEA's not having the ability to just move forward and inspect anytime anywhere, but having to give that 2-week notice. That is something, again, of tremendous concern.

The President has threatened to veto any legislation

that impedes the nuclear deal. My hope is that Congress is going to stand up and say ``no'' to the President in this deal and that we will say ``yes'' to increasing the security of this Nation.

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