Are the Armed Forces of the United States prepared to fulfill their constitutional duty to provide for the common defense?

In your testimony, you identified the lack of royalties as one of the biggest problems with the Mining Law of 1872.

All of us would like to understand how this steady funding has improved readiness with specific examples.

It would be destabilizing? Is that your assessment?

We end up carrying the burden, and especially in a situation such as the one we faced in Montana...

So, it decimates your industry, plus we don't have the ability to clean up most of these abandoned mines.

So, oil, gas, coal, solar, wind, livestock, logging, and outdoor recreation all pay to use the public lands, but mining does not.

We all recognize that readiness suffered during several years of underfunding following the 2011 enactment of the Budget Control Act.

In short, are the operational units of the military services prepared to execute their combat missions when asked?

Many of us do feel that the situation at the southern border is also a national security issue.

Too bad we don't have any say in that.

We can't do it without it, I don't think.

Fifty billion dollars?

I am going to leave now and head to the airport to be with the families during this time.

Simply put, the Federal Government cannot meet its obligations under the Paris Agreement without DOD's past, ongoing, and future contributions to this effort. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to recognize this fact and…

I have an amendment at the desk. The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment. The text of the amendment is as follows: Page 7, after line 5, insert the following: (9) In its nationally determined contribution, the United…

today I come to the floor to celebrate the life and career of Bruce Davey Benson or, as so many people know, Bruce D. Benson or, to all of us, just Bruce. I first met Bruce Benson in 1994. Now, he will not remember this at all, but I…

I again thank the chairman for his distinguished leadership in chairing the Foreign Affairs full committee and for his leadership in shepherding this important resolution to the floor. Mr. Chairman, I would hope that my colleagues across…