Estevez Nomination

Floor Speech

Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, yesterday, I voted to confirm Alan Estevez to be a Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense. In this important position, the second highest ranking acquisition official at DOD, Mr. Estevez will help oversee hundreds of billions of dollars in procurement during his tenure.

I am eager to work with Mr. Estevez on an issue important to my State and our overall security strategy. Like my colleagues Senators Blumenthal and Cornyn have discussed, it is unacceptable to me that the Department of Defense is continuing the procurement of Mi-17 helicopters from Rosoboron export, Russia's official arms export firm.

The reasons to stop this procurement are numerous, and, by contrast, the logic behind the continuation of this procurement is flawed.

Not only is Rosoboronexport at the heart of an industry that Russia's own chief military prosecutor publicly stated is corrupt, but this company is also supplying the Assad regime in Syria. We are handing money--tax dollars from my constituents in Connecticut--to a company that is propping up a regime that is committing atrocities against its own people.

I was outraged to learn that earlier this year that DOD awarded Rosoboronexport a $572 million contract for the procurement of 30 Mi-17 helicopters for the Afghan Special Mission Wing, completely ignoring the recommendation of the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction, SIGAR, to halt this procurement.

Even if DOD thinks that this procurement should go forward in light of the SIGAR recommendation, there is no credible reason that these helicopters should not be made in America. My constituents are tired of our procurement dollars going to overseas firms, and this particular example is one of the most egregious.

We have spent over $100 billion on equipment from overseas manufacturers in the last several years. When I talk to manufacturers in Connecticut who are churning out the most reliable and rugged military equipment in the world, including helicopters, they just can not understand why we are paying a corrupt Russian arms dealer for equipment we already make at home.

I look forward to making my feelings known to Mr. Estevez and, as we did last year during the consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act, making it clear that this body does not approve of this Mi-17 procurement.

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