Fischer Honors Sergeant First Class Noah Tietjens, Urges Funding of Department of Homeland Security

Today, U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and member of the Appropriations Committee, spoke on the Senate floor honoring United States Army Sergeant First Class Noah Tietjens of Bellevue, Nebraska, who was killed in Kuwait during Operation Epic Fury. Fischer also highlighted the urgent need to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which has been shut down for 19 days.

Fischer speaks on the Senate floor. Click above to watch.
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Transcript of Fischer's speech as prepared for delivery:

M. President,

I want to begin with a moment of solemn gratitude. Yesterday, we received devastating news. U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Noah Tietjens of Bellevue, Nebraska was killed in Kuwait during an unmanned aircraft system attack while supporting Operation Epic Fury. He was assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command out of Des Moines, Iowa.

Sergeant Tietjens enlisted in the Army Reserve in 2006 as a wheeled vehicle mechanic. He gave two decades of his life to this country - deploying to Kuwait in 2009 and again in 2019 - always answering the call, always showing up.

His record of service speaks for itself. Sergeant Tietjens earned the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary and Service Medals, the Iraq Campaign Medal with Campaign Star, the Army Service Ribbon, the Overseas Service Ribbon, and the Armed Forces Reserve Medal with "M" Device.

Each ribbon and medal marks a chapter of a life poured out in service to something larger than himself. We honor Sergeant Tietjens today - and we hold his family, his unit, and all who loved him in our hearts.

In addition to Sergeant Tietjens, five other American heroes did not come home.

All six of these service members gave their last full measure of devotion in service to this country, and we will never forget them. To their families - their mothers, fathers, spouses, and children - a grateful nation stands with you and prays for you. May they rest in eternal peace.

Last week, President Trump made a decisive call to strike at the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. The Iranian regime is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans and continued to pose unacceptable threats to the United States.

Our brave men and women in uniform carried out Operation Epic Fury with courage, precision, and an unwavering commitment to protecting this nation - and the world - from one of its gravest threats. Because of their valor, Iran's ability to project force and terror throughout the region has been significantly degraded - and their nuclear ambitions were devastated.

But the threat does not end with the strikes this weekend. Iran's terrorist proxy networks are already embedded in our hemisphere - in part because of years of open-border policies that left this country dangerously exposed.

The risk of a terror attack on American soil has gone up - and our Department of Homeland Security is shut down.

Not understaffed. Not underfunded. Shut down. For 19 days and counting.

This agency was created after September 11th, 2001, for one purpose: to make sure we never again suffer a catastrophic attack on our homeland.

DHS guards our airports. It responds when hurricanes and wildfires devastate our communities. It defends our power grids, our water systems, and our financial networks from foreign adversaries who seek to bring us to our knees.

And right now, this critical agency is crippled.

Sixty-one thousand TSA employees are working without pay - including forty-two thousand screeners standing at security checkpoints in airports across this country at this very moment.

They are screening your bags. They are checking your boarding passes. They are doing their jobs with professionalism - all while not knowing how they will pay their rent, feed their children, or keep the lights on.

That is not just unfair. That is a disgrace.

Two-thirds of CISA - the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency - has been furloughed. The people whose sole job is to protect our power grids, our hospitals, our financial networks from Chinese and Iranian and Russian cyberattacks have been sent home.

FEMA's emergency response capacity is disrupted. The Coast Guard is unfunded. The Secret Service is strained. And every single day this drags on, the window for a catastrophic attack on American soil opens a little wider.

It is these organizations that are bearing the brunt of this government shutdown.

So, I ask my Democratic colleagues directly: why?

Republicans have put forward a counterproposal. The ball is in Senator Schumer's court. And so far, he has chosen politics over protecting the American people.

Let me be clear about where Republicans stand. We will not accept any agreement that ties the hands of federal law enforcement. We will not accept provisions designed to obstruct immigration enforcement.

We have been ready to fully fund DHS and get every one of those sixty-one thousand workers back to doing the jobs that keep this country safe.

M. President, let me close with this.

Six Americans just gave their lives to make this world safer. The very least we can do is ensure that the agencies defending our homeland here at home have the funding, the personnel, and the operational capacity to do their jobs.

To my colleagues across the aisle: end this shutdown. Fund DHS. Stop holding our national security hostage.

To the American people: know that there are those of us who will not stop fighting until every agency charged with protecting this homeland is fully funded, fully staffed, and fully focused on your safety.

Because that - above all else - is our most basic responsibility.

God bless our fallen heroes. God bless every service member still in harm's way. And God bless the United States of America.

Thank you, M. President. I yield the remainder of my time.