-9999

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the nominations of Dr. Lester Martinez-Lopez to be the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, Dr. Agnes Schaefer to be Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, and Mr. Franklin Parker to hold the same position within the Navy.

The office Dr. Martinez-Lopez is nominated for is responsible for ensuring that we are medically ready to fight and win wars. This is a critical role for our national security at all times, but, of course, it is even more important during a pandemic.

Leaving this office without leadership jeopardizes our ability to respond to this health crisis and prepare for the next one. Having spent more than two decades as an Army surgeon and commander of medical centers at major U.S. military bases both stateside and overseas, and more than a decade as a leader of private medical research organizations, Dr. Martinez-Lopez clearly has the experience to fill this position.

The Assistant Secretaries for Manpower and Reserve Affairs across the branches ensure our military and civilian workforce have the education, the training, and the skills needed to meet current and future threats. Mr. Parker, who is nominated to head this office for the Navy, has demonstrated his ability to fill the role and will be able to hit the ground running, having held the position before.

Dr. Schaefer, nominated to head this office for the Army, will bring firsthand knowledge from her 15 years at the RAND Corporation, where she specialized in military personnel policy, reserve component issues, national security strategy, and emerging threats.

All three of these positions play important roles in our national security. All three nominees to fill them were voted out of committee-- a committee on which the Senator from Missouri serves--without objection--without objection--4 months ago. But all three remain vacant.

The Senator from Missouri, as someone who serves on the Personnel Subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee, I know would know better than most the issues our military branches and the troops face. These include recruitment and retention challenges, ensuring safe workplaces, including implementing IRC reforms to prevent and respond to sexual assault and sexual harassment within the ranks, and addressing the high suicide rate among troops and veterans--all issues which impact military readiness. But there is a hold on all DOD nominees.

I am unaware of any substantive objections to these nominees based on their qualifications or their ability to serve, reasons which we have a constitutional duty to review based on our advice and consent role.

My understanding is that the Senator from Missouri is implementing a blanket hold based on general policy disagreements with the Biden administration. In addition to our advice and consent role, the Senate has oversight responsibilities, and that is a place where the Senator from Missouri, as a member of the Personnel Committee of the Armed Services Committee, has the responsibility of oversight of the three offices that we are discussing today. He has a way to ensure that once these three nominees are confirmed, he and his colleagues can evaluate their performance. With acting, nonconfirmed officials in these roles, that oversight authority is undermined.

As a Senator, we are afforded extraordinary powers to advance policies or even just to make a point, but these powers should be used in accordance with our constitutional responsibilities. The President of the United States has the responsibility to nominate qualified individuals to fill these roles, and he has. These individuals are qualified, and now we have the responsibility to confirm them so that they can get to work for our servicemembers and for the American people.

I will now yield to my friend and colleague Senator Kaine.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source