{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.wicker.senate.gov/2024/7/senator-wicker-statement-on-final-removal-of-gaza-pier", "Senator Wicker Statement on Final Removal of Gaza Pier", "2024-07-17", "2024", "2024-07", "Republican", "Senate", "MS", "Roger F. Wicker", "W000437", "www.wicker.senate.gov", "wicker", "https://www.wicker.senate.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the highest-ranking Republican on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement in response to the Department of Defense\u2019s announcement that the U.S.-made pier constructed to deliver aid into Gaza has been permanently removed:\n\n\u201cThis chapter might be over in President Biden\u2019s mind, but the national embarrassment that this project has caused is not. The only miracle is that this doomed-from-the-start operation did not cost any American lives,\u201d Senator Wicker said. \u201cI have been calling for an end to this election-year gimmick since its primetime inception at the State of the Union. While I am glad it has finally concluded, we cannot buy back the $230 million needlessly spent, and significant questions remain about the Biden administration\u2019s poor planning for this mission.\u201d\n\nSenator Wicker also presented the following facts about the pier:\n\nIt took roughly double the amount of time to transport the pier than for the duration when the pier was actually in use.\n\nThe $230M used to deploy the pier could have instead been used to purchase more than 1,200 Coyote counter-drone interceptors to keep U.S. troops safe in Iraq and Syria.\n\nBelow is an accounting of Senator Wicker\u2019s actions related to the pier:", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:32:29Z"]], "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.wicker.senate.gov/2024/7/senator-wicker-statement-on-final-removal-of-gaza-pier"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.800109002739191, "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"}