Congressional lawmakers are taking a look at the work being done in the Mohawk Valley that could help bolster our nation’s defense. Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-New Hartford) hosted neighboring Rep. John Katko (R-Camillus) on a tour of Rome Lab Monday.
Tenney said the Air Force Research Facility is the future of the country’s defense.
"We're talking about cyber. We're talking about quantum computing,” said Tenney. “We're talking about things that we've got to come up with and compete with our enemies and other innovators that are our business rivals."
Katko, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Homeland Security, said he believes the technology has the potential to make the borders safer, protect public venues from becoming terror targets, and keep the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan from hitting closer to home.
"We're going to have to redouble our efforts to keep this country safe,” said Katko. “We can't keep it safe if we don't have the technologies. We're going to have the technologies here, and our technologies are much better than the bad guys."
After attacks at the Kabul airport during evacuations in Afghanistan and the deaths of 13 U.S. service members, Tenney is calling for impeachment proceedings to begin against President Joe Biden.
"Here we are. Everything that we anticipated could happen is happening,” said Tenney. “I don't think the president is in a position to be able to lead right now."
While Katko is not calling for impeachment, he said he believes our country is in a more dangerous position now than it was two weeks ago.
"This is the low point for me since I've been in Congress as far as lack of faith in leadership of our country, and it's not about politics,” said Katko. “I'm one of the most bipartisan members of Congress. It's not about that at all."
Katko said in the coming weeks, he’ll be conducting oversight to get answers about what happened in Afghanistan.
