John Cornyn: “I know we are in the postcloture time on the Estevez nomination. I wanted to explain why it was necessary for me to put…”

“I know we are in the postcloture time on the Estevez nomination. I wanted to explain why it was necessary for me to put a hold on this nomination this last March. This is a very important position, the second ranking acquisition official at the Department of Defense. Actually my objection does not have anything to do with Mr. Estevez personally, who I trust will do an admirable job in this very important position. But the reason I put a hold on the nomination was so I could try to get the attention of the Department of Defense to protest the Department's business relations with a notorious Russian arms dealer. For the last few years, the Pentagon has been buying helicopters, Mi-17 helicopters, from Rosoboronexport, a Russian arms dealer, to supply the Afghan military. But this is the arms dealer, of course, who is supplying Bashar al-Assad with the weapons he is using in Syria in that civil war to kill his own innocent civilian population. The Pentagon itself has confirmed that Bashar al-Assad security forces have used these very same Russian-made weapons to massacre an untold number of civilians. Yet the Department of Defense has stubbornly refused--I do not think arrogant is too strong a word-- stubbornly and arrogantly refused to end its relationship with Assad's personal arms supplier. In fact, since 2011, the Pentagon has given more than $1 billion--$1 billion--to Rosoboronexport in no-bid contracts.…”