An Unfortunate Vote Undermines Military Readiness and Preparedness

Congressman Brian Babin represents the 36th district of Texas with great distinction. He is a member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology and serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Space. Babin also served in the Texas Army National Guard as an Air force Captain and dental practitioner in the U.S. Air force.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Welcome to Secure Freedom Radio, this is Frank Gaffney, your host and guide for what I think of as an intelligence briefing on the war for the free world. I have come to know and greatly admire a man who has personally dedicated his life to helping our country wage that war in a variety of capacities, including as an Airborne Artillery man in the Texas Army National Guard as an Airforce captain and dental practitioner in the U.S. Airforce. He has been of late, I am very pleased to say, a Member of the U.S. Congress representing the US 36^th district of Texas with great distinction, down in the Houston area. That has helped him serve with considerable knowledge as the Chairman of the Science Committees, Space Subcommittee; space being a big thing in Texas as well as the rest of the country. He is Congressman Brian Babin, a good friend and a man I am always pleased to welcome. Sir, welcome back.

REP. BRIAN BABIN:

Great to be with you Frank as always, and thank you for what you do.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Let me ask you about a vote you were able to cast yesterday that unfortunately was not in the majority. I would like you to tell us about this issue Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri urged you and your colleagues to address, I think for the first time, involving transgender individuals in the US military.

REP. BRIAN BABIN:

Yes, it was an extremely disappointing vote for me. It is ironic that the vote came up yesterday and of course the last three days we have been working hard whipping our colleges in the Republican Party to make sure they vote for this amendment which would prohibit the expenditure of taxpayer funding for elective transgender surgeries in our U.S. military. Just 10 or 14 days ago I had a great conversation with a young man who is a Battalion Commander in Fort Hood and he was explaining to me some of what he was having to deal with under the new transgender policies that have come to the military under the Obama administration- and it was just a nightmare. Losing their personal, someone who may be a a tanker or an essential element of a fighting unit and suddenly decide they want a sex change and become a man if they are a woman or vice versa and that starts a series of events that essentially takes that individual out of the work place! He is still being paid and is counseled by the commanders and yet he undergoes hormonal series and eventually a sex change operation and so for a period of 2-3 years, he is essentially useless to that fighting unit.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Wow. And as a medical professional as you are in the military congressman, I know you have a special understanding of the problems we are facing in that regard alone. Namely, that a huge and growing percentage of the military budget is already going to healthcare, and a lot of it not fully up to scratch especially for the Vets. This seems to be an extraordinary burden on the military quite apart of the downsides for readiness that you talked about. Am I right?

REP. BRIAN BABIN:

Absolutely. On several levels here, if you didn’t even want to think about it on a moral or common-sense level, just think about how our military has been underfunded due to sequestration for several long years. We are in a very low ebb for military readiness and preparedness under the Obama administration. And when we have to have elective surgeries that we estimate over a ten year period these surgeries will cost the U.S. taxpayer about $1.4 billion dollars- and that is just the surgery, not including the man-hours lost as I just mentioned.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

And the hormone treatment, and I heard even dependents are going to be eligible for this. It is just a black hole I would think.

REP. BRIAN BABIN:

We estimated it would be over $3 billion dollars in lost time and taxpayer money. If you took $3 billion dollars you could make a destroyer. Our ships are at a low point now. We have fewer ships now than we have had since World War I. It is incredibly absurd that we continue to have this policy. And when we lost, I don’t recall the exact number right now–

FRANK GAFFNEY:

I think it was by 5 votes if I am not mistaken, Sir. Very close, but I trust this will be revisited especially with a proper debate. It seems as if the Rules Committee, and this gets into the weeds a little bit, but the Rules Committee said they did not want Congresswoman Hartzler to think about the larger larger issue here of whether we should be bringing these people into the military at all. Which is as you know under review at the pentagon at the moment. But Congressman Babin, they apparently said, ‘No just talk about the money for treatment.’ And I gather you had some people argue, ‘Well you got to give these people in the military the healthcare they need.’ This is a mistake on so many levels and I appreciate your efforts to try to prevent it from being hoisted into the military.

REP. BRIAN BABIN:

Yes, Sir. You cannot get into the military with colorblindness. You can’t go to the military and say, “I have a bad heart, I’d like to get into the military for free surgery.” And yet, with this policy, you can have hundred of thousands of dollar worth of surgery and therapy at the taxpayers expense if you want to have a sex change.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Without benefit to the military. That is the real crucible as I am sure you feel too. Congressman, we are almost out of time for this segment. Now let me turn to another matter that I am very concerned about it. And that is this issue of a project Hillary Clinton sponsored during her time as Secretary of State with the Russians called Skolkovo, a suburb of Moscow. Apparently, it involved the transfer of some very sensitive technology including something I know is right in your wheel-house as Chairman of the Space Subcommittee, namely hypersonic rocket engines. Something that appears the Russians now as a result of this tech transfer, are putting on their nuclear missiles aimed at us, designed to defeat our mille defenses. Could you talk from your perspective both from the military as well as the space subcommittee business, of the advisability of such a step and its strategic implications.

REP. BRIAN BABIN:

It certainly is inadvisable and it is certainly not the first time we have seen tech transfers under a Clinton. It happened during Bill Clinton’s, there was some transfer of guidance system.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Yes. [Inaudible] missile technology to the Chi Coms.

REP. BRIAN BABIN:

Exactly. I don’t know the specific details about this particular incident that you are talking about. But I will say, hypersonic are very strategic developments that our adversaries the Chinese and the Russians are absolutely working very hard on. These are weapons that can travel many times the speed of sound, they are hard to track, hard to defend from, and for us to be sharing this type of technology with an adversary like Russia is very fool hearty. And it should be investigated.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

I could not agree more. And this is really the point, we are hearing about collusion and treason even in connection with people involved in the Trump campaign. And this seems to me, scream out, for as you say investigation Congressman Babin but also really raises a question, if in fact this strategic technology has been put in the hands of people who are trying to harm Americans, that would rise to the serious questions of betrayal of the country. We hope this investigation will carry forward and will look forward for your help in doing that. Congressman Brian Babin is our guest and has graciously agreed to spend a second segment with us. We are going to talk with him as one of the leaders of the issues of Refugee resettlement, immigration, and the economic and national security implications of all of that. Congressman Brian Babin, representative of the 36th district of Texas, is in the House, at least virtually. We will have him for the next segment. Stay tuned, after this.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

We’re speaking with Dr. Brian Babin, a member of Congress from Texas. He represents the 36^th District; he is among other things the Chairman of the Space Subcommittee in the House of Representatives. He is also a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He is one of the leaders in Congress trying to restore sanity to our policies with respect to immigration and specifically refugee resettlement and so much more. And so, I wanted to ask you Congressman, first of all again thank you for joining us, to talk a little about this ruling by the federal judge in Hawaii, just announced today. In which, he said, well the efforts of the Administration to define what the Supreme Court meant in the ruling recently about the immigration pause in defining some sort of close relationship between a would-be immigrant and Americans was too narrowly cast by the Administration. What are your thoughts on this whole drama, as it’s been playing out, the immigration pause specifically, but more generally how the courts have been interfering with it?

REP. BRIAN BABIN:

Well, this is more of the same thing Frank. It’s the West Coast, the 9^th Circuit, and those individual federal district judges that are so activist and having a liberal agenda that they absolutely ignore the Constitution. Our President absolutely has the right to curtail the influx of refugee from dangerous areas of terrorism.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Failed states for example.

REP. BRIAN BABIN:

Absolutely, they’re either an enemy like the Iranians or they are failed states who have no information; we can’t know if they’re citizens. We can’t even vet them, as the FBI director has been telling us for two years now. So, this guy is way off base. He’s a great example of why the Congress needs to reestablish our jurisdiction over the lower courts on the federal level.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Which you have the Constitutional Authority to do, and I think that this is absolutely right. There is also talk about breaking up the 9^th Circuit to try to get it more representative of the country. Our guest is Dr. Brian Babin, member of Congress. We are talking about immigration related issues. A pause makes sense, especially from these failed states and hostile states, as you say Congressman. The vetting that’s needed to try to make sure there are not individuals coming here to do us harm. And yet, we’re seeing the refugee program continue apace; busting apparently the cap that the President had set, something like 50,000. You’ve looked into this refugee resettlement program and kind of “cottage industry” that has now build up to enable it with government tax dollars. Is something really, seriously FUBAR hear?

REP. BRIAN BABIN:

Something is wrong, rotten in Denmark with our refugee resettlement program Frank. This thing has gotten so far out of hand, and the Congress has lost our authority over it. Our past President has just misused it repeatedly, and even in the face of his own Homeland Security Secretary and FBI Director; telling us and telling him that they can’t properly vet this people, and he continued to plus it up. As you know, I offered legislation almost two years ago trying to stop the influx until we can properly vet these people. Hasn’t gotten the floor but we have had a lot of deliberation, and wonderfully we’ve got a man in the White House now that is trying to protect American citizens from the dangers of a Trojan horse terrorist coming in with our refugees.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Which is as you say Congressman, one of his Constitutional, as well as statutory responsibilities.

REP. BRIAN BABIN:

That’s right. He’s got the responsibility, and the ability, and the right to do what he is doing with this executive order. We saw Obama do the exact same thing. And yet these seven countries he’s trying to hold off on, for keeping these refugees from coming in from. These are not his choice, these were not Trump’s chosen countries; these were countries chosen by the Obama Administration because they are failed states or hostile enemies.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Congressman, let me ask you about, you’re from a border state of course, the importance, as you see it, to trying to work another piece of this problem which is, not people coming through as refugees being resettled and vetted, to such a degree as we can. But people just simply walking across that border into our country, whether it’s the Texas border or elsewhere. A wall is something Donald Trump promised us, there seems to be a very determined effort on the part of not just Democrats but some of the Republican leadership in the Congress not to build it. Where are we on that? And how important, from your perspective is it that we honor the commitment in the course of the election.

REP. BRIAN BABIN:

Let me tell you something, that this is a promise that Trump made; this is a promise he intends to keep, and I am going to do all I can to help him to keep that promise. In fact, I am going to be joining one of my colleagues, John Ratcliffe, in signing a letter to say that we shouldn’t even be breaking for our August break unless we’re doing something about securing this border. The good news is that in a briefing with General Kelly, who is now the Homeland Security Secretary, just by enforcing existing law he has stopped seventy-five percent of illegal crossings and just by enforcement of the law. So, we have got to fund this wall.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

But you know, one of the places that we are finding difficult to do that is in these so-called sanctuary cities, and I wonder, Congressman, I know your own state of Texas has taken action at the state level to try to shut these things down. How critical is it we get enforcement of the law and support for the enforcement of federal law from these state and local municipalities?

REP. BRIAN BABIN:

It’s indispensable, Frank, and it is inexcusable and inexplicable why and how some local politician, state, local, or county official can put the health and safety and welfare of an illegal alien ahead of his own citizens. I don’t understand that but nevertheless that is what is happening, and I applaud Governor Abbot and my colleagues at the state level and the legislature for trying to do something about it. And actually, we’ve done something about it in the House of Representatives, we passed a sanctuary city bill three weeks ago, along with a Kate’s Law, which will enhance penalties for returned deportees coming back into the country. So, we’re making progress here.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

But we have got to get the Senate to do the same.

REP. BRIAN BABIN:

That is exactly right. We’ve got to get it through the Senate. And on the worst places for sanctuary cities is in Traverse Country Austin, Texas. And they are actually out, it is almost like open warfare between the governor and what we are trying to do up here in D.C. on the Republican side with the radical left. They just want to keep endangering our U.S. citizens. They put them secondary to illegal aliens with multiple felony connections, multiple deportations. Exactly like the Kate Steinle murder in San Francisco. This is what Kate’s Law is all about and we must stop it. These folks have got to start enforcing and aiding our federal law enforcement for immigration and criminal deportations. They must do it and we intend to make them.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Well, I certainly applaud, as I know you do, the efforts that Jeff Sessions, now the Attorney General has been making to try to give them some real incentives to conform to the law and I hope that that’ll work, and that your legislative efforts will bear fruit as well. Congressman Brian Babin, I wanted to get you to talk about the grid as well, but we’re going to have to get you back soon to do that. It’s passionate issue for both of us, I know. But we appreciate your leadership and your willingness to talk on so many of these other issues and I look forward to continuing that conversation with you again very soon.

REP. BRIAN BABIN:

And I as well Frank. Thank you so much, I look forward to talking about that.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

My pleasure.