Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise today to join all of our Senate colleagues in sending our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims in the attacks in Paris. Our hearts go out to the people of France. The United States stands firmly and united in solidarity with France, just as France--our Nation's oldest ally--has stood in solidarity with us. We must work to find those responsible for those attacks and bring them to justice.
We remain steadfast as a country, and talking to people in my own State, I know this. We remain steadfast in our resolve to defeat ISIS, to root out this evil. From those planning these attacks in Belgium to those training camps in Syria, our military--our strong and mighty U.S. military--has already provided critical leadership with France in escalating the airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, and we must continue to do that. In the coming months we must focus on building this international coalition
against ISIS, as well as providing critical intelligence in going after these perpetrators.
Just yesterday Russia announced that it was in fact a bomb that brought down the plane over Egypt. Not all the facts are known yet, but ISIS has claimed responsibility. There is no limit to what these people will do. That plane was filled with innocent families and children coming back from vacation, just as the concert hall in France was filled with young people there for the music. They now lie maimed in hospitals all over Paris or, worse, their families are burying them in the ground.
What can our country do? First, we must have a unified agenda to keep America safe and to stand by our allies. We must do all we can to build this coalition and to fight this evil at its root with resolve. We have unprecedented technology that should allow us to fight this fight. We have biometrics. We have ways that we can assist other countries.
Secondly, we must do all we can to enhance our own security. We know our first responders throughout the last decade have done amazing work in thwarting attacks. We must continue to support them. If we do more in terms of legislation, we must make sure that we are doing something that will actually make a difference. We are having a security briefing with all Senators tomorrow, and we must listen to our security and intelligence experts to make sure that what we are proposing will make a difference.
Third, we must give our first responders and our military on the frontline the resources they need. I know Senators Shelby and Mikulski are working hard, with their counterparts in the House of Representatives, to craft a budget bill. We must take up that bill as soon as it is completed. Of course, we have had some positive success in reaching a budget that didn't make deep cuts into our military or our homeland security capabilities. That was positive. Now we must bring it
home with the budget.
The fourth and final action I will mention today as part of this unified agenda to keep our country safe and to support our allies is to make sure we have our own frontline positions filled. As was mentioned earlier, this includes the Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Crimes, a position that must be filled, and military positions, including positions within our own Army.
We have a judiciary that has to take on these terrorism cases. I can't comment about what is going on in every jurisdiction in the country, but I know Minnesota has one of the highest caseloads. We have a well-qualified applicant named Wilhelmina Wright, a former prosecutor, who passed through the Judiciary Committee without dissent, thanks to the good work of the chair of this committee, Senator Grassley, and Senator Leahy. Her name is one that is coming up before the Senate.
Given that we have 15 indictments out of Minnesota alone--and that number growing--against ISIS, home-grown terrorists, and people who were trying to fight for ISIS abroad and given that our great law enforcement in Minnesota on the Federal and the local level were able to track them down and our aggressive U.S. attorney's office was able to make the cases, we need judges to handle those cases. We have one of the highest caseloads already in the country.
I appreciate the work of the Judiciary Committee, on a bipartisan basis, in bringing this nomination to the floor. It is one of several that need to get done. Again, these are frontline positions--frontline positions dealing directly with the terrorism that we are talking about.
Finally, we have to fill the State Department positions that are open--USAID, which provides critical assistance to our allies and our friends that are taking on these fights. The fact that we don't have anyone confirmed in that position is very disturbing. We have someone I know Senator Corker is supporting that we would like to get through and we must get through--Ms. Smith.
We also have open ambassador positions--again, noncontroversial nominees--in the European continent, in countries that have not had an ambassador for years. I bring up one nominee from the State of Minnesota, and that is for the country of Norway, which has been a critical ally. Norway is one of our country's strongest and most dependable international allies. It was a founding member of the NATO alliance, an ally we will be relying on heavily as we look at fighting ISIS. Its military has participated
in operations with the United States in the Balkans and in Afghanistan. Norwegians have worked alongside Americans in standing up the Ukraine, and they have worked with us in countering ISIS.
Yet we have not had an ambassador for over 2 years. I recognize part of this is because the initial nominee ended up withdrawing--someone put forward by this administration. That happened. Now we have a noncontroversial nominee, along with a nominee for the country of Sweden. The nominee for Norway, Sam Heins, from the State of Minnesota, has gotten through the Foreign Relations Committee and was approved by voice vote. No one raised any questions about the qualifications of Mr. Heins for this
position.
Given that Europe is on the frontline of these ISIS attacks, we must join with Europe and make sure that we not only have our military positions filled, our State Department positions filled, our USAID positions filled, and our judiciary at home with the nominees before the Senate so that we can have a strong, united front, but we also have to make sure we fill the positions for these ambassadors.
Again, I am not pushing controversial nominees. These are people who will be serving in these positions for the remaining year. But I ask that the Senate take up these nominations, as well as get the budget done, which we are well on our way to do, as well as come together on commonsense solutions for our own security, as well as making sure that we put together and lead, in America and with our allies, an international coalition to root out ISIS.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
We remain steadfast as a country, and talking to people in my own State, I know this. We remain steadfast in our resolve to defeat ISIS, to root out this evil. From those planning these attacks in Belgium to those training camps in Syria, our military--our strong and mighty U.S. military--has already provided critical leadership with France in escalating the airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, and we must continue to do that. In the coming months we must focus on building this international coalition
against ISIS, as well as providing critical intelligence in going after these perpetrators.
Just yesterday Russia announced that it was in fact a bomb that brought down the plane over Egypt. Not all the facts are known yet, but ISIS has claimed responsibility. There is no limit to what these people will do. That plane was filled with innocent families and children coming back from vacation, just as the concert hall in France was filled with young people there for the music. They now lie maimed in hospitals all over Paris or, worse, their families are burying them in the ground.
What can our country do? First, we must have a unified agenda to keep America safe and to stand by our allies. We must do all we can to build this coalition and to fight this evil at its root with resolve. We have unprecedented technology that should allow us to fight this fight. We have biometrics. We have ways that we can assist other countries.
Secondly, we must do all we can to enhance our own security. We know our first responders throughout the last decade have done amazing work in thwarting attacks. We must continue to support them. If we do more in terms of legislation, we must make sure that we are doing something that will actually make a difference. We are having a security briefing with all Senators tomorrow, and we must listen to our security and intelligence experts to make sure that what we are proposing will make a difference.
Third, we must give our first responders and our military on the frontline the resources they need. I know Senators Shelby and Mikulski are working hard, with their counterparts in the House of Representatives, to craft a budget bill. We must take up that bill as soon as it is completed. Of course, we have had some positive success in reaching a budget that didn't make deep cuts into our military or our homeland security capabilities. That was positive. Now we must bring it
home with the budget.
The fourth and final action I will mention today as part of this unified agenda to keep our country safe and to support our allies is to make sure we have our own frontline positions filled. As was mentioned earlier, this includes the Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Crimes, a position that must be filled, and military positions, including positions within our own Army.
We have a judiciary that has to take on these terrorism cases. I can't comment about what is going on in every jurisdiction in the country, but I know Minnesota has one of the highest caseloads. We have a well-qualified applicant named Wilhelmina Wright, a former prosecutor, who passed through the Judiciary Committee without dissent, thanks to the good work of the chair of this committee, Senator Grassley, and Senator Leahy. Her name is one that is coming up before the Senate.
Given that we have 15 indictments out of Minnesota alone--and that number growing--against ISIS, home-grown terrorists, and people who were trying to fight for ISIS abroad and given that our great law enforcement in Minnesota on the Federal and the local level were able to track them down and our aggressive U.S. attorney's office was able to make the cases, we need judges to handle those cases. We have one of the highest caseloads already in the country.
I appreciate the work of the Judiciary Committee, on a bipartisan basis, in bringing this nomination to the floor. It is one of several that need to get done. Again, these are frontline positions--frontline positions dealing directly with the terrorism that we are talking about.
Finally, we have to fill the State Department positions that are open--USAID, which provides critical assistance to our allies and our friends that are taking on these fights. The fact that we don't have anyone confirmed in that position is very disturbing. We have someone I know Senator Corker is supporting that we would like to get through and we must get through--Ms. Smith.
We also have open ambassador positions--again, noncontroversial nominees--in the European continent, in countries that have not had an ambassador for years. I bring up one nominee from the State of Minnesota, and that is for the country of Norway, which has been a critical ally. Norway is one of our country's strongest and most dependable international allies. It was a founding member of the NATO alliance, an ally we will be relying on heavily as we look at fighting ISIS. Its military has participated
in operations with the United States in the Balkans and in Afghanistan. Norwegians have worked alongside Americans in standing up the Ukraine, and they have worked with us in countering ISIS.
Yet we have not had an ambassador for over 2 years. I recognize part of this is because the initial nominee ended up withdrawing--someone put forward by this administration. That happened. Now we have a noncontroversial nominee, along with a nominee for the country of Sweden. The nominee for Norway, Sam Heins, from the State of Minnesota, has gotten through the Foreign Relations Committee and was approved by voice vote. No one raised any questions about the qualifications of Mr. Heins for this
position.
Given that Europe is on the frontline of these ISIS attacks, we must join with Europe and make sure that we not only have our military positions filled, our State Department positions filled, our USAID positions filled, and our judiciary at home with the nominees before the Senate so that we can have a strong, united front, but we also have to make sure we fill the positions for these ambassadors.
Again, I am not pushing controversial nominees. These are people who will be serving in these positions for the remaining year. But I ask that the Senate take up these nominations, as well as get the budget done, which we are well on our way to do, as well as come together on commonsense solutions for our own security, as well as making sure that we put together and lead, in America and with our allies, an international coalition to root out ISIS.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
