8 May 2001
Source: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aaces002.html

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[Congressional Record: January 22, 2001 (Senate)]
[Page S69-S79]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:cr22ja01-11]                         

 
                    BEGINNING OF THE 107TH CONGRESS

[excerpt]

  Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I thank the leader for his opening 
remarks and for setting the stage for what we all hope to be a very 
productive session of Congress. It is like the first day of a football 
season or baseball season. Everybody is even right now. Nobody has lost 
a game yet. Everybody has high expectations and high hopes for a good 
season.
  I believe we have a good team here. We have a good team here in the 
U.S. Senate. We have a good team in the House, a good team in the White 
House. I am very optimistic that we can work together and really 
produce for the American public, because that is really what it is all 
about. It is about delivering and meeting the concerns that the 
American public have with how we here in Washington, D.C. interact with 
them.
  There are certain issues that are very important to average 
Americans--I always use the term kitchen table. What are people talking 
about at their kitchen table, and what is relevant in their daily lives 
and how do we react to that and intersect with that here in Washington, 
D.C. I think it is vitally important for us to approach what we do here 
in part based on that.
  Obviously, there are great issues of national security and foreign 
diplomacy that may not be kitchen-table conversations on a daily basis 
to which we obviously have to pay attention. Making sure Government 
runs efficiently and effectively may not be on the front burner of the 
American people but certainly is the responsibility of Congress. But 
when it comes to the agenda of changing to improve our system to 
reflect the concerns of the American public, I think that is what we 
really want to focus on today.
  Senator Lott did a good job of running through those items that he 
believes and I believe are on the minds of millions of Americans, where 
they see problems and they see ways in which the Federal Government 
can, by some level of involvement, make a positive difference in making 
their lives better and America better. I want to walk through those.
  We, as a Republican Conference, a few weeks ago met across the street 
in the Library of Congress. We had a discussion about what we thought 
were the issues of importance to the people of America where Congress 
could make a difference, where Congress could improve the quality of 
life in America and improve the prospects for future generations of 
Americans to live free and to have opportunities.
  The six we came up with are these: Improving our national defense. 
Obviously, a big concern with this new administration and I think with 
the entire Congress on both sides of the aisle is the low level of 
morale in many areas of our military and the fact that we have not 
faced up to the challenges we have in national security. I will go 
through those.
  First, morale. Let's make no mistake about it; we have the best 
fighting force ever seen on the face of the Earth. We have outstanding 
young men and women who are serving this country and serving it well, 
but we have not provided leadership in two ways: No. 1, providing basic 
care for them as people, whether it is the military health care system 
which has an inordinate amount of problems or whether it is simply pay, 
salary. We gave a pay increase, but it is still lagging far behind the 
private sector. We ask our people to serve and put their lives on the 
line, and yet the compensation is such that most of our people in the 
military live hand to mouth, paycheck to paycheck.
  We need to do something to improve quality of life in housing. We 
need to improve quality of life in another area, and that is 
deployment. Our front-line troops in particular are stretched out, even 
several members of a family and friends who are in the Reserves and 
Guard and are being asked to do much more and many more deployments. 
That is stretching them at home and at their work, all because of our 
inability to focus our resources in America appropriately.
  I am hopeful with this new President that we will reduce the number 
of deployments, and not just because we should not be involved in a lot 
of the areas in which we have been involved, but certainly because of 
the strain it takes on our military in morale and readiness. That is 
another area in which I am looking forward to doing some work.
  The final area in defense I want to talk about today is we have not 
prepared our military for the next generation, the new threats that are 
out there, whether it is missile defense and the threat of terroristic 
missile attacks on this country and our allies or cyberwarfare. There 
are 20 countries around the world developing offensive capability to 
attack not just our military installations and our military computers, 
but our commercial computer systems through cyberwarfare. We have to do 
a better job of responding to that and chemical and biological weaponry 
and other types of terroristic attacks--homeland defense.