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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Co-Chair of the Senate Space Force Caucus and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), delivered remarks at the Space Force’s Fourth Birthday Celebration. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall, Chief of Space Operations General Chance Saltzman, and House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers also attended the event. Senator Cramer reflected on the establishment of the Space Force and the need to keep up with our adversaries.
“Here I was, a brand-new senator and freshman on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the White House calls me up because they couldn’t find anyone in the Senate to carry the ball,” said Senator Cramer. “We have a space school at the University of North Dakota and a space radar station, which is now the Space Force Station, so I thought, why not? It took about four months for people to get on board, but there is nobody who thinks creating the Space Force was a bad idea four years later. As we celebrate the Space Force’s fourth birthday, let us remember it’s not an infant anymore, but it’s not a toddler either. The Force has graduated well into the PhD program. We need to do everything at the speed of our adversaries, and the Space Force helps us do exactly that. Thank you for letting me play in your sandbox because I like it a lot. God bless and happy birthday.”
Background:
Senator Cramer was instrumental in the Space Force, securing its inclusion in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, which President Trump signed in December 2019. Since then, Senator Cramer has used his seat on SASC to work with space leaders and bring them to North Dakota to see the state’s space potential firsthand. This included the first official trip for the Chief of Space Operations (then General Raymond), where he visited the University of North Dakota’s School of Aerospace Sciences and Cavalier Air Force Station, now known as Cavalier Space Force Station.