Sen. Fischer Talks Defense Bill, "Clink," and More

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Pleasure to welcome back to the program. Nebraska US Senator
Deb Fisher, Senator, good.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Morning, Good morning Gary. How are you doing well.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Good to have you back on here. Send it back
to where Congress get back after the August recess and
you have to dig into, among other things, then the
latest version for twenty Fiscal twenty twenty sixth, the National
Defense Authorization Act. What would you like to see included

(00:30):
in terms of spending and policy.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, I just want to make sure that we continue
to recognize the threats in our country faces and that
we continue to work together Democrats and Republicans to meet
those threats, and that's to provide for our national security.
We had a really strong bill come out of the
Senate Armed Services Committee, only one no vote, which was

(00:56):
Elizabeth Warrene. She always votes knows otherwise. You know, we
support our troops, we support giving them the resources that
they need. We look at modernizing our defense capabilities. So
I think we have a really strong bill that's going
to be up on the floor next week and we
need to get it done.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Are you concerned at all that the defense budget? And
I think most Americans would agree the strongest national defense
we can have the stronger the better. But like any
large bureaucracy, there is waste and abuse here and there,
and we haven't heard much about that as it regards

(01:38):
the Pentagon. Are you looking at that at all?

Speaker 2 (01:42):
You know, we always look at the programs that are
out there and try to focus on the ones that
are going to have the biggest impact on keeping this
country safe. For example, upgrading our missile defense systems. We
look out at Kimball, Nebraska with the Sentinel program, with

(02:03):
the ICBMs out there, that's going to be the first
upgrade to replacing our minute men trees with Sentinel. It's
a huge construction project, but it's something that we need
to do. Same thing with our nuclear capable bombers and

(02:24):
the submarines being replaced, our commanding control systems.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Right, but are there excuse me for interrupting, but are
there efficiencies that could be improved and save taxpayer dollars?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Oh? Yeah, I mean of course there are. And that's
again you have to prioritize. It's the same thing we
see across the board. But what we have seen with
the defense spending in the past is when we get
continuing resolutions, the programs that we don't need to fund
continue to be funded. We're looking at a content, genuine resolution,

(03:01):
hopefully it'll only be a short term one here at
the end of this month that would continue the Biden programs.
That's really foolish to do that. We need to pass
appropriations bills and that includes a defense one. But yeah,
we've got to we've got to comb through all of
it and and prioritize the needs that we have.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Don't even look at the at defense spending, you know, Elon.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Musk, I think there's a recognition that obviously there are
programs in the departments that that need to be.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Cut.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Basically, it has to be cut, and that's either looking
at and I know through the administration they were looking
at kind of a top heavy structure when it comes
to the military with the administration there and what that
all entails when you set up new programs the cost

(04:06):
of that as well. But I come back to the
point Gary that you've got to recognize what the number
one job of a Fedral government is and that's to
protect this country.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yes, and now the president wants to change it to
the Department of War, which I instead of the Department
of Defense, which I guess he can do informally, but
it would take an Act of Congress to formally change it.
By the way, another important question, Senator Fisher, do you
know does the federal government know anything about what's going

(04:38):
on with these Canadian wildfires that are polluting the upper
tier of states in this country, polluting our era and
it's been going on for years.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Well, I have a personal opinion on that, and it
doesn't just extend the candidate. It extends to the United
States as well. And our force, our force need to
be managed and instead what we have seen are activists
and different administrations that think that think you're going to

(05:12):
preserve and protect our forest land, even our grasslands by
fencing them out and not having them used. They have
to be managed and uh, whether that's by logging, clearing
out the under rush and fallen trees exactly. So I

(05:33):
hope that the Canadians and here in the United States
we review those management practices and that that belief out
there that we have to preserve and protect everything when
it truly we need to manage it properly.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Let's go over to Europe. They don't have fire fire
Department of Interior could do something, but really. They do
a lot of forest management in Europe.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
All right, yeah, I mean it starts, it starts at
the top. And we have an administration now that understands
that we have.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Some controversy here in the state. As you know Senator
Fisher in the legislature, some are unhappy with the korn
Oskar clink existing at all out there on McCook. What's
your view of it.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
I think it's our job to keep America safe. It's
our job to keep the people in communities safe. I
know the governor worked with the Trump administration to look
at this facility. I don't know the details about it.
I wasn't briefed, but nobody should be surprised by this

(06:44):
if there's a facility available. President Trump was very open
and very honest about it that illegal immigrants need to
be returned to their country. Just about it's not our country.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Minute left here. The ahole Democrats are clogging up, as
you well know, clogging up the confirmation of presidential appointees
just because they can't, just because they want to flummox
the Trump administration at every opportunity. Is there any solution
to this?

Speaker 2 (07:21):
You know, we're working on one, but hopefully as Republicans
were going to push through and narrow the time, we're
going to go back to grouping nominees. I've got some
statistics here. In Obama's first two hundred days, two hundred
and ninety two of his nominees were passed by a

(07:44):
voice vote. You know how many sender or President Trump's
gotten zero, We confirmed one hundred and thirty five. And
Democrats for only political show to their friends to say, oh,
we're fighting. They forced them all through a world club.
So that's going to stop. That's going to stop, and

(08:06):
we're we're going to push them through so we can
make sure that we can do the work for the
people in the Senate. You know, if you don't have
nominees in place, that hurts Americans because they can't get
answers when they reach out to the bureaucrats.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Senator thanks always, good to have you with us. Have
a good weekend, Nebraska, you bet, Nebraska US Senator Dawn
Fisher