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Floor Speech

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Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, in a few moments, the Senate will vote on the confirmation of our next CIA Director, and then immediately following there will be a vote on cloture on the nomination of Mr. Peter Brian Hegseth, President Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense. I am going to vote yes for cloture, and I expect that a majority of our Senators will do so.

Three months ago, 77 million Americans voted for change in the United States, and they sent President Trump back to the White House. It was a decisive victory and a clear mandate to focus this Nation on prosperity and peace. That work begins at the Pentagon, where we must return to a policy of peace through strength.

We are facing the most complex and dangerous global security environment since World War II. The next few years will shape the direction for the remainder of the 21st century. It could be led by the United States, a future which would lead to freedom and prosperity for all Americans and the absence of armed conflict, or it could be led by despots.

The Chinese Communist Party is working against us. Its dictator, Xi Jinping, uses military force and economic coercion to try to reshape the world order with the help of his junior partner Kim Jong-Un of North Korea. At the same time, the despot Vladimir Putin remains intent on territorial expansion. Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and their like continue to attack Israel and the United States, and ISIS remains set on killing Americans every day--every day.

Unfortunately, the Biden administration wasted precious time and significant resources pursuing divisive social policies at DOD. For instance, we just spent months organizing with the administration over whether the Defense Department should pay for hormone therapies or puberty blockers for minors out of taxpayer dollars. Seventy-one percent of Americans oppose that policy, including more than half of Democrats, so I am glad we are going to abandon that type of policy. I could go on, but let me now turn to focusing on the future.

Together, Congress and the President have a lot to do, and we don't have much time to do it. We have a broken shipbuilding industrial base to fix. We have defense manufacturing jobs to build up and munitions lines to expand. We have an ossified budgeting system to update, and we have got an audit to finish for the first time in decades. And we have a resourcing problem that needs attention.

On his way out the door, Secretary Austin now tells us we need to spend a lot more on national security. Well, thank you, Secretary Austin; it is an admission 4 years too late. We are simply falling behind our adversaries in too many ways.

So President Trump seeks to reverse this trend and bring much needed change to the Pentagon, and he has chosen a man to lead the Pentagon. His choice to spearhead these efforts is Pete Hegseth, a retired major and combat veteran in the Army National Guard.

Admittedly, this nomination is unconventional. The nominee himself is unconventional, just like that New York developer who rode down the escalator in 2015 to announce his candidacy for President. That may be what makes Mr. Hegseth a good choice. He is not beholden to the status quo, and he is open to new ideas.

He is intent on lethality and readiness, and shouldn't we all be? His experience in the line of fire and his servicemember advocacy make at least one thing clear: Pete Hegseth will put the men and women of our military first.

Congress has often seen defense secretaries delay and evade Congressional oversight. I think Pete Hegseth will be willing and eager to partner with us in that regard.

Last week, the Senate Armed Services Committee convened to consider Mr. Hegseth's nomination. In testimony lasting nearly 4 hours, he addressed three key audiences: our committee, the U.S. Senate as a whole, and the American people.

I think the American people liked what they saw; I know I did. He showed each of us why President Trump chose him to be the next Secretary of Defense.

First of all, he articulated a clear vision of the Pentagon, and it is clear to anyone who listened that he is going to bring energy and fresh ideas to shake up the Department's stagnant bureaucracy.

He will restore a warfighting ethos and relentlessly focus on the military's core mission: to defer conflict and, if necessary, to win a war.

Mr. Hegseth is committed to bringing a swift end to the corrosive social policies that serve to divide our servicemembers rather than unite them. And as I have pointed out earlier, the American people are behind him in this regard overwhelmingly.

He correctly stated that we need to change the way the Pentagon does business. He will restore a culture of accountability by cutting redtape, incentivizing innovation, and rebuilding the defense industrial base.

He affirmed his intent to tackle the hardest systemic problems that plague the Pentagon, challenges that previous secretaries have proven unable to fix. And I mentioned that audit. I sincerely believe we will get an audit done under his oversight.

And, importantly, he agreed that maintaining the inadequate Biden-era defense budget levels would be dangerous to our national security. And we hear, as I said, the outgoing secretary admitting that very thing.

In his testimony before our committee, Mr. Hegseth said this:

My only special interest is--the warfighter. Deterring wars, and if called upon, winning wars, by ensuring our warriors never enter a fair fight. We let them win and then bring them home.

Well put, Major Hegseth. I am confident Mr. Hegseth, supported by a team of experienced top officials, will do exactly that. Pete and his family have endured numerous smears and false news stories. Less reported is the outpouring of support this nominee has received.

Pete Hegseth has devoted his career to fighting for his fellow soldiers, and his fellow soldiers--men and women--are now speaking out on his behalf. In the past few months, a host of flag officers signed an open letter enthusiastically commending Mr. Hegseth. I thank these generals and admirals for doing so.

The Armed Services Committee has received letters from female soldiers who support Pete. We received messages from those who served alongside him on the battlefield, including a moving statement from a Medal of Honor recipient who backs Pete Hegseth to the hilt.

These men and women uniformly vouch for Pete Hegseth's leadership, tenacity, and passion for supporting the warfighter. On the day of his hearing, 100 Navy Seals marched from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the Senate office buildings. They marched together that distance, and rows of Mr. Hegseth's fellow soldiers sat behind him in solidarity for the entire 4-hour-long hearing. These patriotic Americans were willing to step forward and declare their support for Mr. Hegseth publicly--in stark contrast, I might add, to the anonymous attacks we have heard about.

In this critical moment for our national security, I believe we have the right man for the job.

I urge my colleagues to continue in their support of Mr. Hegseth's nomination to be our next Secretary of Defense.
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