Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act Of 2015
Floor Speech
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Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I wish to acknowledge the remarks of the distinguished Senator from California and the Senator from North Carolina, and I thank them for their important work on the cyber bill. I know we are going to be discussing a lot of that, and why it is important to our national security.
NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT
This afternoon I wish to talk about another important bill that is moving its way through the process of becoming law, and that is the National Defense Authorization Act, the NDAA.
As did many of my colleagues, I spent last week back home in my great State of Alaska. In Alaska, it is hard not to see the strength and pride in our military everywhere, every day, everywhere we go.
I will provide a few examples.
We have what is called the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention, an annual convention that we have with a very important group of Alaskans. The theme this year was ``Heroes Among Us'' at the convention. It was about heroes among us because Alaskan Natives serve in the U.S. military at higher rates than any other ethnic group in the country--a real special kind of patriotism. I had the honor, really, to meet dozens of these great veterans from all kinds of wars. I met veterans from World War II, the Attu campaign. A lot of Americans don't realize that Alaska was actually invaded by the Japanese and we had to fight to eject them from the Aleutian Islands. I met veterans from the Philippines campaign under General MacArthur. I met veterans from the Korean war who served at the Chosin Reservoir. I had a great opportunity to meet an Honor Flight coming back from Washington, our veterans from World War II, Korea. Of course, just walking around Anchorage you see and hear military members training all the time. We have a great base, JBER, with F-22s ripping through the sky, our military members keeping us safe. That sound is what we call in Alaska the sound of freedom, when you hear those jets roaring. It is everywhere.
In Alaska, we love our veterans and our military. We honor them. We know that providing for the national defense of our great nation, taking care of our troops, and taking care of our veterans is certainly one of the most important things we do in the Senate. Of course, it is not just Alaska. I am sure when the Presiding Officer was home in the great State of Nebraska there was the same patriotic feeling of supporting our troops and the importance of our national defense.
For the most part, that feeling exists here in Washington. I have been honored to sit on two committees that focus on these issues a lot: on the Armed Services Committee and Veterans' Affairs Committee. These are very bipartisan committees and where support for our national defense, our troops, and our veterans is across the board on both sides of the aisle--no doubt about it. But I do say ``for the most part'' because, as the Presiding Officer knows, nothing is truly as it seems in Washington, DC.
I have spoken on the floor, as a number of Senators have, about what motivated a number of us last year to actually throw our hat in the ring and run for the U.S. Senate. Like the Presiding Officer, I know a lot of us were concerned about the country going in the wrong direction, about a dysfunction in Washington, about a government that has run up an $18 trillion debt, no economic growth, our credit rating being downgraded, no amendments being brought to the Senate floor, no budget for the Federal Government attempted, no appropriations bills attempted for years. The most deliberative body in the world was certainly a body that had been shut down, and a lot of us saw a need to change that.
So we are starting to change that. We are back to regular order. We are talking about debating bills. There have been dozens, if not hundreds, of amendments already this year--last year there were only 14 amendments--and we passed a budget. We passed 12 appropriations bills to fund the government--very bipartisan--and we are focusing on the issues, whether it is cyber security, defense or taking care of our veterans, something the vast majority of the American people want us to focus on.
For example, we brought to the floor two critical appropriations bills just a couple of months ago--the Defense appropriations bill and the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill. These passed out of the Appropriations Committee by huge bipartisan majorities, 27 to 3 on the Defense appropriations bill and 21 to 9 on the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill. This is what the American people want us to do--get back to regular order, fund the government, and put together a budget. So far, so good. That is what we are called to do.
Here is where the dysfunction of Washington, DC, began to rear its head again: These bills that are critical to our troops, our defense, and our veterans--all with strong bipartisan support in committee--were brought to the floor of the Senate and they were filibustered. They were filibustered. The bill to fund our military, that funds our national defense and takes care of our veterans was filibustered--blocked--stopped by our friends on the other side of the aisle. I am not sure why. I still don't know why. As a matter of fact, I haven't seen anyone who actually voted to filibuster these important bills come down to the Senate floor and say: Here is why we voted against funding our troops. Here is why we voted against funding our veterans.
I think the overwhelming majority of Americans, regardless of what State they live in, would say: No, no, no. You need to vote for these bills that are funding our military, veterans, and national defense. That is one of the most important things we want you to do. The bottom line on those votes is that our troops, our veterans, and our national defense were shortchanged because they didn't get funded.
Let me move on to the Defense authorization bill, what I want to talk about today. This is an annual undertaking that sets the policies, programs, and defense strategy for our military. It also authorizes spending on national defense and our military. Again, it is certainly one of the most important tasks this body does, and I think most Senators on both sides of the aisle would agree with that.
Once again, as with the appropriations bill, we were working closely together on a bipartisan basis. I was on the Armed Services Committee and this moved through the committee and it was very bipartisan. It was voted out on a strong bipartisan vote to come to the floor. I commend Chairman McCain, who did a great job on that as the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Ranking Member Reed of Rhode Island did a fantastic job. I must admit that this Senator feared a little bit of a replay in terms of the scenario we saw with the appropriations bill--meaning strong bipartisan support out of the committee and then coming to the Senate floor and being filibustered. I feared this, in part, because at one point during the Defense authorization debate the minority leader came and stated that the Defense authorization bill was ``a waste of time.''
A waste of time? Tell that to the marines, the soldiers, the airmen, the sailors, and their families--those members of the military who are defending our country right now--that this bill was a waste of time. I guarantee they would not agree with that statement. Fortunately, neither did the Senate. To the contrary, the Senate has now voted on the Defense authorization bill twice, once as an original bill and once as part of a conference report with very strong bipartisan and veto-proof majorities, with 71 Senators the first time around and 73 when we voted on it a couple of weeks ago. I mention the phrase ``veto-proof majority'' because incredibly the President of the United States, the Commander in Chief, has said he is going to veto this bill when it comes to his desk. It was just sent to him yesterday.
I don't know how the Commander in Chief is going to explain that to the troops or to their families or to the American people or to the 73 Senators who voted for that bill. It is important to recognize that although we may think this is all inside Washington and no one is really following it, something like this impacts morale when the Commander in Chief is saying: Hey, troops, I am going to veto this.
This is a copy of the Marine Corps Times. I subscribe and read the Marine Corps Times. A lot of marines and members of the military read this all over the world. Guaranteed, our men and women deployed overseas read the Marine Corps Times. In this edition there is an article about how President Obama has vowed to veto the Defense authorization bill. We have marines fighting overseas who are reading this, and they are not getting it.
This week in the Marine Corps Times:
The MOAA [Military Officers Association of America] and other military advocacy groups have argued against the presidential veto, calling the legislation a critical policy measure that cannot be delayed. The measure has been signed into law in each of the last 53 years, and includes a host of other specialty pay and bonus reauthorizations.
In a statement from MOAA officials in this article that thousands of our Active-Duty troops are reading:
The fact is that we are still a nation at war, and this legislation is vital to fulfilling wartime requirements. There comes a time when this year's legislative business must be completed, and remaining disagreements left to be addressed next year.
To govern is to choose. To govern is to prioritize.
President Obama's administration has spent years negotiating the Iran deal and this body spent weeks debating the President's Iran deal. We put a lot of time into it, and the President's administration put an enormous amount of time into it.
On the Iran deal, part of the hope from Secretary Kerry, the President, and others was that once it got passed by the U.S. Congress--by the way, on a partisan minority vote--that Iran would somehow start to change its behavior and say: Look, America is someone we want to partner with.
Since the Senate passed the Iran deal, let's see what has happened. Iran has sent troops to Syria. Iran has backed Hamas, which is now engaging in knife-murdering attacks against Israelis. The Iranian leader has stated that Israel shouldn't exist within the next 25 years. Iran has violated the U.N. Security Council ballistic missile resolutions, and this Senator and many others think Iran has already violated the deal by firing ballistic missiles with a range of 1,000 miles. Iran has sentenced an American reporter for the Washington Post for spying. I don't think the behavior that a lot of the supporters for this deal anticipated is happening.
More broadly, I think it is important to put into context what is going on with our national security, the NDAA, the moving forward with the Iran deal, and the President's threat to veto the NDAA. The President's Iran deal, once implemented, will be giving tens of billions of dollars to Iran, the world's biggest state sponsor of terrorism--but the President threatens to veto the Defense bill that actually funds our military. The President's Iran deal will lift sanctions on Iranian leaders such as General Soleimani, who literally has the blood of American soldiers on his hands--but the President threatens to veto U.S. troop pay bonuses and improved military retirement benefits. The President's Iran deal gives Iran access to conventional weapons, ballistic missile technology, and advanced nuclear centrifuges--but the President threatens to veto funding for advanced weapons systems for our Armed Forces. Finally, the President's Iran deal certainly is going to allow more funding for terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas--but the President is threatening to veto a bill that provides additional resources for our troops to fight terrorists such as ISIS.
To govern is to choose. To govern is to prioritize. Has it really come to the point where the White House is more focused on freeing up funds for Iranian terrorists than funding America's brave men and women in uniform? I certainly hope not.
I ask all of my fellow Senators who voted for this bill in a very strong bipartisan way and my fellow Alaskans and Americans to reach out to the White House. Let them know that you oppose the President's veto of this bill.
What we need is a strong military, particularly now. We need to support our troops and our veterans, and we need President Obama to sign--not veto--this bill which is critical to our national defense.
I yield the floor.
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