On the recordJuly 12, 2016
it is certainly an honor to think that we are standing here as Senators with two distinguished veterans: Lieutenant Colonel Ernst and Senator Sullivan, who served in the U.S. Marines. In fact, tonight I will be at the Iwo Jima memorial, at a parade, with my daughter, honoring my dad, a marine, and honoring the men and women who served and wore the great uniform of the U.S. military. There is one group who is cheering right now, and that is our enemies. They are cheering the fact that this body cannot get a defense appropriations bill passed. Maybe we should tie congressional pay to this bill. You know what. We could ask the minority leader: Let's put congressional pay in here. Maybe that will get the body to act, to move forward, if we say: If we are not going to fund our military, let's not fund this body right here. If we can't pass the Defense appropriations bill, we shouldn't get a paycheck here in Washington, DC. We ought to stand with the men and women who depend on the appropriations. What this body is saying no to--this filibuster is saying no to military personnel; it is saying no operations; it is saying no to the procuring we need to take the fight to the enemy; and it is saying no to research and development, testing and evaluation to make sure our men and women who wear the uniform of the U.S. military have the very best tools they need to defeat a very real enemy. I thank my freshmen colleagues for coming to the floor today.…
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