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Floor Speech

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Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, I want to join my colleagues, both Democrat and Republican, in expressing regret that we don't have the important national security business of this Congress before the Senate right now. Clearly, it is important to do a nomination and a confirmation every few days. The election is approaching and, of course, there are some show votes. And I think probably my side of the aisle has engaged in that sort of thing in years past.

But it is such a shame that we face this axis of aggressors like we have never faced in 50 years. And every national security official, whether a retired four-star or someone who is no longer in service but giving us good advice, they come before us, and they say we have never had such a threat from China; from Russia, which is engaged in a shooting war right now having invaded the sovereign space of a next- door neighbor; from Iran, which is directing the three--at least the three--terrorist groups that are raining so much havoc on Israel; and then a very unstable leadership in North Korea. This axis of aggressors is signaling that they don't fear an invasion of Taiwan in three short years. They have said it publicly.

While all of that is going on, our leadership, the distinguished majority leader from New York, has not let us bring the appropriations bill to the floor; has not let us bring the authorization bill, which we must pass--we must pass both of these bills every year--the two essential bills that cannot go without being taken care of every fiscal year.

I will say to you, Mr. President, to my colleagues, and to others that are paying attention, this has been bipartisan, absolutely. Senator Murray is correct. She is unhappy about this too. But I point the finger to the one person on the face of the Earth that can actually bring a bill to the floor, and that is the majority leader.

Senator Reed, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and I have been putting together a managers' package for this year's National Defense Authorization Act. It would have been much better had we brought the bill to the floor and had 100 amendments winnowed down and worked back and forth together as we should be doing; then have open votes so the people of the United States could see how Senators from Maine to Mississippi and from the west coast to the east stand on important issues affecting the U.S. military. We have not been able to do that. But we are working together, Senator Reed and I, on a plan.

And we worked on nearly 100 variations of the legislation that was passed months and months ago by the Armed Services Committee to resolve issues of local and State interests--issues involving how quickly we can get our industrial base going to meet the need that, frankly, we are not meeting at the present time; and to get ahead of the game so we can prevent war; so we can have enough strength to have the Reaganesque peace through strength that we enjoyed in the eighties and early nineties.

The appropriations bills are just as important--if not more important--than the authorization bills. They contain funding increases we need to prevent our Air Force from shrinking. We know that the Chinese Navy is expanding enormously and our Navy is shrinking, literally shrinking.

It is regrettable that here we are a week and half to go before we must break for the election, and the distinguished majority leader, Senator Schumer, has not brought any of this legislation before the full Senate, bills that have been ready since July.

Also, I want to commend my colleague from Maine, the distinguished ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, for accommodating the chairman of the Appropriations Committee. I had prepared today to come down here and support Senator Collins in an effort to have a unanimous consent request to bring the bill to the floor. I mean, what else are we doing? Look at us. In a matter of comity and to continue the great working relationship that these two senior Senators have had, Senator Collins refrained from that. So we are not asking for unanimous consent and requiring someone from the other side to come and object to that. We will continue to work.

But what is absolutely sure is that the fiscal year will begin in just a few days. And the appropriation for what we need to do at the Pentagon--what new things we need to do--will not be passed, and we will be stuck with last year's priorities. And as a result, at a time when we need to be putting more resources into national security and sending new direction based on the new facts and the new challenges that are out there--at that time, we will actually be wasting money of the taxpayers by having priorities still extended for another 3 months--hopefully, it is only 3 months--rather than putting the resources there that the experts tell us and that we have learned are necessary for the next fiscal year.

If my colleague from Maine would like to speak on my time, I will be glad to yield to her. If not, I am prepared to yield the floor and just regret so profoundly that our leadership has not allowed us to do the work that the taxpayers expect us to do.

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