WASHINGTON, D.C. –U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) today pressed Lieutenant General Laura Richardson, nominee to be General and Commander of the United States Southern Command on the importance of providing added stability to the economies of “Northern Triangle” nations – El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala – to curb the flow of migration from those nations to the United States. In today’s hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator King and Lieutenant General Laura Richardson examined potential paths forward to stabilize the economy and state of security in Northern Triangle nations – both key factors that drive migration to America’s Southern border.

SENATOR KING: “How do we bolster the Northern Triangle countries economically and in terms of internal security, in order to slow the flow of the migrants to our border? How do we do that, while dealing with what are often essentially corrupt governments? How do we get around the government? It doesn't do any good to send millions or billions of dollars to these countries if it gets siphoned off by regimes that that aren't serving the people, only themselves.”

RICHARDSON: “Well, Senator, certainly through institutional capacity building is extremely important and working – not giving up with our partner nations and continuing to try to work with them. As I said before, a core principle in the U.S. military is human rights and the rule of law. And we have to continue to have this within all of our training, which it is, and continue to leverage that. Not just institutional capacity building, but the militaries are very well respected in this region. And quite honestly, a lot of the people look at the militaries as a way to have a better life and a way to get out of the poverty and the violence and things like that. And so, again, persistent engagement with security cooperation, the exercises, the train and equip, foreign military sales, foreign military financing. As Senator Ernst mentioned, the National Guard State Partnership program. Nine members on this committee have state partnerships with the countries in Latin America. So there are a lot of levers that we have to continually be persistent about utilizing in this region.”

As Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Strategic Forces – which oversees the United States’ nuclear posture worldwide – and a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator King is recognized as a thoughtful voice on national security and foreign policy issues in the Senate. In addition to his committee work, Senator King serves on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, the Senate North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Observer Group, and is co-chair of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission. In July, Senator King announced that the Senate Armed Services Committee’s markup of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022 includes a number of important priorities that he advocated for to advance national security and support Maine communities, including the reapportionment of a second DDG-51 Flight III destroyer. He voted in favor of the Senate’s passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2021, which includes several funding and policy priorities advocated for by Senator King to support military facilities and communities in Maine and advance the national defense. The legislation – containing 25 bipartisan cybersecurity recommendations from the Cyberspace Solarium Commission – became law earlier this year after Senator King and the overwhelming majority of his colleagues voted to override former President Trump’s veto.