Susan Collins Talks To Sec. Lloyd Austin About Army Reservist Responsible For Mass Shooting in Maine

5 months ago

At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) questioned Sec. Lloyd Austin about a mass shooting in Maine.

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Transcript

00:00 Mr. Chairman, Mr. Secretary, let me follow up on the Chairman's question by asking you a very basic question.

00:11 And that is, if you had your preference, would you be operating under a 1% increase?

00:23 In other words, do you think that Congress should revisit the 1% cap that is imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act?

00:36 Certainly, the cap makes it more challenging and forces us to make choices that if we didn't have that cap, we obviously wouldn't have to make.

00:46 So, yes, it does provide more challenges, but certainly we have worked hard to link our request to our strategy,

00:57 and as much of our strategy as we can support, we're going to support.

01:02 Thank you. I want to switch to a different issue.

01:08 On October 25, 2023, that was the darkest day in Maine history in my lifetime.

01:21 Eighteen Mainers lost their lives, thirteen others were injured in the worst mass shooting that we have seen.

01:31 The killer, Robert Card, was a Sergeant First Class in the U.S. Army Reserve.

01:39 The Governor of Maine established an independent commission that has issued an interim report,

01:47 and that report included several very troubling findings about missed opportunities to prevent this tragedy.

02:00 For instance, mental health providers recommended to Mr. Card's Army Reserve Unit that "measures be taken to safely remove all firearms and weapons from his home."

02:14 While the Army Reserve Unit took appropriate action to reserve Mr. Card's access to military weapons,

02:24 this recommendation was never communicated by the Army to relevant law enforcement agencies in Maine.

02:33 We had members of Mr. Card's unit raising alarms with their supervisors about their fear that he was extremely dangerous.

02:45 He actually assaulted a fellow soldier.

02:49 He was institutionalized for two weeks at a hospital for those with mental illness in New York State while he was on drill.

03:01 We have an Inspector General's report that is underway to look at this more thoroughly.

03:07 After I receive that report, I intend to draft legislation that would require our military services to report to the appropriate authorities

03:21 when a service member poses a threat to him or herself or to others while protecting the Second Amendment rights of our service members.

03:35 Would you commit to working with me on such legislation to establish formal policies and procedures

03:45 so that we can ensure that our military services share this kind of relevant information with law enforcement and with state officials under the appropriate state laws?

04:00 Thanks, Senator. First of all, this was a tragedy and my thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by this tragedy.

04:11 The health and welfare of our troops is very important to me at the top of my mind all the time.

04:18 So is the health and welfare of our community members.

04:22 And so absolutely, we will work with you to ensure that we have the mechanisms to, where appropriate, pass relevant information to authorities.

04:36 And so I look forward to my staff engaging your staff on this issue going forward.

04:42 Thank you very much.

04:44 Senator Shaheen.

Susan Collins Talks To Sec. Lloyd Austin About Army Reservist Responsible For Mass Shooting in Maine

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