{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.banks.senate.gov/news/press-releases/secretary-of-war-pete-hegseth-addresses-the-4th-annual-northeast-indiana-defense-summit/", "Secretary of War Pete Hegseth Addresses the 4th\u00a0Annual Northeast Indiana Defense Summit", "2025-11-12", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "Senate", "IN", "Jim Banks", "B001299", "www.banks.senate.gov", "banks", "https://www.banks.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "Fort Wayne, IN \u2013 Today, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth addressed the 4th Annual Northeast Indiana Defense Summit hosted by Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.). Secretary Hegseth outlined how we will rebuild America\u2019s Arsenal of Freedom by restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding the military, and reestablishing deterrence. Secretary Hegseth highlighted Indiana\u2019s critical role in revitalizing the defense industrial base to achieve this mission.\n\nClick the image above to view Secretary Hegseth\u2019s full address or watch it here (26:12 \u2013 1:00:00)\n\nKey Remarks:\n\nSecretary Hegseth: If you\u2019re putting America First, and the roadmap is peace through strength, the third ingredient President Trump has injected is good old fashioned Indiana common sense. Common sense is back at the White House, and it\u2019s back at the Pentagon. Common sense means putting warfighting, lethality as the Senator mentioned, training, discipline, accountability, readiness at the forefront of everything we do at the Department of War.\n\nSecretary Hegseth: As the President points out, and he\u2019s right, we have the strongest, most capable, most lethal military in the world, full stop. No one can touch us. But if we\u2019re going to maintain that, and put the best weapons, ships, and aircrafts in the hands of our men and women, we\u2019ve got a lot of work to do here in Indiana and across the country to get things on time and at scale.\n\nSecretary Hegseth: When I think of rebuilding the military, we think of places like NSA Crane right here in Indiana, the 3rd largest naval installation in the world. I can\u2019t lie, the first time I met with Senator Banks, I said \u2018wait, the third largest naval installation in the world is in Indiana? Okay,\u2019 but then when you add it all up, look at the industry and look at the history, it all makes sense. Then you look at the capability of what\u2019s produced here, Crane embodies the warrior ethos committed to unwavering dedication and readiness in the face of any challenge. Over time, it\u2019s become a go to on drone warfare, hypersonics, and microelectronics, rapidly transitioning these innovations to the warfighter. We\u2019re going to need more places like Crane, and we\u2019re going to need them quickly.\n\nSecretary Hegseth: For far too long, our department has been bogged down by burdensome and inefficient processes, paralyzed by impossible risk thresholds and requirements, and distracted by agendas that have nothing to do with warfighting. Every dollar squandered on redundancy, bureaucracy, and waste is a dollar that could be used for something meaningful.\n\nSecretary Hegseth: The objective is rebuilding the arsenal of freedom. American industry and its innovative spirit are begging to be unleashed to solve our most complex and dangerous warfighting problems.\n\nSecretary Hegseth: After decades of securing other people\u2019s borders halfway across the world, we\u2019re finally securing our own border\u2026We\u2019re also taking the fight on the deterrence front to the cartels. My advice to foreign terrorist organizations: Do Not Get in A Boat. If you\u2019re trafficking drugs to poison the American People and we know you\u2019re from a designated terrorist organization, you\u2019re a foreign terrorist and trafficker, we will find you and we will kill you.\n\nSecretary Hegseth: We\u2019re reestablishing deterrence, as the Senator mentioned, in the Indo-Pacific and around the world\u2026we are deterring China\u2019s influence around the world.\n\nSecretary Hegseth: We\u2019re restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding our military, reestablishing deterrence, and we have a President of the United States who has the backs of our warfighters.\n\nSecretary Hegseth: In this new era for the defense industrial base, we\u2019re going to take risks, we\u2019re going to optimize for speed, we\u2019re going to compete, and we\u2019re going to scale.\n\nSecretary Hegseth: What you have in Indiana, in the good Senator. Senator Banks is an incredible ally who we know we can call when tough decisions have to be made or he has to stand there shoulder-to-shoulder with us or help explain the reforms that we\u2019re undertaking. It\u2019s critical. You learn real quick in Washington who your real friends are, who will actually go to bat, and who\u2019s core is grounded in what needs to be done in that moment to advance America First and peace through strength. Senator Banks, I want to thank you for being that ally to us at the Department of War from Day 1.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.banks.senate.gov/news/press-releases/secretary-of-war-pete-hegseth-addresses-the-4th-annual-northeast-indiana-defense-summit/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4528210740536451, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}