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Floor Speech

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Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, today, I urge my Senate colleagues to confirm Joe Kent as the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

Mr. Kent has 20 years of military service and 11 combat deployments during the War on Terror, as well as experience as a Green Beret and a CIA officer. Mr. Kent has dedicated his career to fighting terrorism and to keeping Americans safe.

For Joe, this mission is both patriotic and, sadly, personal, as his first wife Shannon was tragically killed while serving in Syria in 2019. America remains grateful for and honored by her selfless, valiant service to our Nation, and we continue to hold Joe and their children in our prayers for their loss.

Mr. Kent understands the grave threat that terrorism poses to the security and safety of Americans. He has committed to returning the National Counterterrorism Center to its statutory mission of integrating threat intelligence from foreign terrorist organizations and to getting out of purely domestic activities. These are among the reasons I call on my colleagues to support his nomination.

Finally, in addition to Mr. Kent, I would like to emphasize the urgency with which the Senate ought to confirm nominees to all intelligence and national security-related positions. Getting these nominees through the confirmation pipeline is essential to our national security and crucial to increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of our intelligence Agencies.

Again, I am pleased to offer my support for Mr. Kent's nomination, and I call on my colleagues to do the same.

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