#159: America Is Vulnerable - Representative August Pfluger (TX-11)

Threats to America are at an all time high. Our national security and law enforcement professionals have warned us. Our military leaders are preparing for anything and everything. Representative August Pfluger https://pfluger.house.gov/ is the chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. He is now a 3-term Congressman representing Texas’s 11th District. He is also an Air Force Academy graduate and an F-22 fighter pilot with over 300 combat hours. As a member of the bi-partisan military Veterans alliance, the For Country Caucus https://withhonor.org/for-country-caucus/, one of his biggest efforts is to build coalitions across the aisle. With Homeland Security, terror threats and nation-state brinksmanship front and center, Fran Racioppi https://www.linkedin.com/in/francisracioppijr/ sat down with the Congressman to ask him what exactly the biggest threats to America are. They dug into the theory of an imminent terror attack, what the battlefield with China really looks like, and why preventing denial of service attacks and the cyber-security risks against America’s critical infrastructure should be at the top of the priority list. They also discussed the future of SOF on an undefined battlefield, how the reduction of fraud, waste and abuse will open up funds for discretionary spending, and why disagreement should be encouraged; but when the decision is made, everyone needs to get in line and execute. Watch, listen or read our conversation from Congressman Pfluger’s office. Don’t miss our full coverage from Capitol Hill. Special thanks to For Country Caucus for setting up this series. HIGHLIGHTS 00:00 Introduction02:55 Veterans in Congress02:35 Terror Threat To America04:45 Cyber Threats10:01 Future role of Special Operations11:47 Lessons from Service in Congress QUOTES “There’s a level of trust when you know that somebody else has served.”“It starts with just transparency. We live in a dangerous world. It’s not just a terrorism threat.”“These non-nation state actors and even nation state sponsored cyber activities lie in that grey zone.” “That’s where we’re really vulnerable is some of the smaller communities, some of the smaller banks, some of the smaller entities that provide these services. Denial of services. That’s what we’re worried about.” “Every dollar of improper payment that is going somewhere else is a dollar we’re not spending on security.”“SOF plays a huge role in deterrence. That to me is worth its weight in gold.” Follow the Jedburgh Podcast https://www.instagram.com/jedburghpodcast/ and the Green Beret Foundation https://www.instagram.com/greenberetfoundation/ on social media. Listen on your favorite podcast platform https://pod.link/1558608802, read on our website https://greenberetfoundation.org/jedburghpodcast/investing-in-military-infrastructure-jumping-in-with-arkansas-senator-john-boozman, and watch the full video version on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@jedburghpodcast as we show why America must continue to lead from the front, no matter the challenge. The Jedburgh Podcast and the Jedburgh Media Channel are brought to you by University of Health and Performance https://university-hp.com/and are an official program of The Green Beret Foundation https://greenberetfoundation.org/. The opinions presented on the The Jedburgh Podcast and the Jedburgh Media Channel are the opinions of my guests and host Fran Racioppi. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Green Beret Foundation and the Green Beret Foundation assumes no liability for their accuracy, nor does Green Beret Foundation endorse any political candidate or any political party.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Fran Racioppi?

  Threats to America are at an all-time high. Our national security and law enforcement professionals have warned us. Our military leaders are preparing for anything and everything. Representative August Fluger is the chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. He's now a three-term congressman representing Texas's 11th district. He's also an Air Force Academy graduate and an F-22 fighter pilot with over three undercombat hours. As a member of the Bipartisan Military Veterans Alliance, the Four Country Caucus, one of his biggest efforts is to build coalition across the aisle. With homeland security, terror threats, and nation-state brinksmanship front and center, I sat down with the congressman to ask him what exactly the biggest threats to America are.

• 0:44Fran Racioppi?

  We dug into the theory of an imminent terrorist attack, what the battlefield with China really looks like, and why preventing denial-of-service attacks and the cybersecurity risks against America's critical infrastructure should be at the top of the priority list. We also discussed the future of special operations on an undefined battlefield, how the reduction of fraud, waste, and abuse will open up funds for discretionary spending, and why disagreements should be encouraged, but when the decision is made, everyone needs to get in line and execute. Watch, listen, or read our conversation from Congressman Fluger's office. Don't miss our full coverage from Capitol Hill. Special thanks to the Four Country Caucus for setting up this series. The Jedberg Podcast is brought to you by University of Health and Performance, providing our veterans world-class education and training as fitness and nutrition entrepreneurs.

• 1:29Fran Racioppi?

  Follow the Jedberg Podcast and the Green Beret Foundation on social media, listen on your favorite podcast platform, read on our website, and watch the full video version on YouTube as we show you why America must continue to lead from the front, no matter the challenge. The opinions presented on the Jedberg Podcast and the Jedberg Media Channel are the opinions of my guests and myself. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Green Beret Foundation, and the Green Beret Foundation assumes no liability for their accuracy, nor does Green Beret Foundation endorse any political candidate or any political party.

• 2:08Fran Racioppi?

  Representative Fluger, welcome to the Jed Bruck Podcast.

• 2:10Speaker 01

  Thank you. It's nice to be here with you.

• 2:12Fran Racioppi?

  Well, you represent Texas 11th District, so northwest of Austin. This is your third consecutive term in Congress and you graduated from the Air Force Academy, spent 20 years as a fighter pilot flying F-15s and F-22s. I saw the gun barrel out there. I mean, before I went into Special Forces and became a Green Beret, I was a Bradley platoon leader. And so we had the 25 millimeter main gun, but that thing was pretty impressive out there.

• 2:38Speaker 01

  I love it. I think it's the only one in Congress when you walk around. I think it's the only gun barrel like that. It actually came out of an F-22 20 millimeter barrel. So proud of that and it's fun to see that. But thank you for your service too.

• 2:48Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah, I mean, look, it was the highlight of my life and I think it's critically important. And even when we look at the Congress right now, in the 119th Congress, you've got 100 veterans sit in this Congress, which is the most out of the last eight Congresses, which is pretty impressive when you start doing the math on that. I mean, that's a significant percentage. As you look across the Congress right now and you look at the other veterans who serve, how are you going to come together as the veteran community to focus on teamwork, building America and really getting results? Because that's what veterans care about. How do you get the result and how do you do it collectively?

• 3:24Speaker 01

  I love this topic and I think it starts with the fact that whether you're a Green Beret or a fighter pilot, whether you served in the Navy or were in the Marine Corps, there's a level of trust when you know that somebody else has served. When you see that regardless of the party and the affiliation, the political environment, there's a trust level that's there. I think one of a couple of things. Number one, working on the NDAA, working on what we can do for our veterans in the military, but also then expanding beyond that. Let's tackle some things, some topics that are not typically what veterans always work on in Congress. To have 100 people means that we have veterans on every single committee and we have to tackle these things together. I think now is the time. 119th is the time to do that.

• 4:05Fran Racioppi?

  So one of the things that's being tackled, I mean, I think across the veteran community and you're seeing it is national security. National security was certainly a top line issue. As we went into the election, we've sat down and been fortunate. And before we go on, I do want to thank the four country caucus for bringing us in. This is our second round through Congress of interviews that we've been fortunate enough to do. But they've been great in supporting not only the members, but then also people like the Jedburgh Podcast and Green Beret Foundation who are coming in and having these conversations and then getting that out to the veteran community. But you serve as the Chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. And I've been fortunate over the last couple of years to have some great conversations with all of our senior military leaders.

• 4:49Fran Racioppi?

  And I'll tell you that to a commander and the NCO leadership, they look at me and they know that we are closer to a 9/11 than we are removed from 9/11. And they know that the charge to both prevent it and respond to it is going to fall on their watch, especially in the special operations community. As you sit in your seat as the chairman, how do you assess the terror threat to the homeland today?

• 5:16Speaker 01

  Unfortunately, you're right. And as Chairman of the Counterterrorism Committee on Homeland Security, we have had multiple hearings about this. The landscape is ripe, that you have situations going on, not just in Afghanistan with the return of the Taliban, but also throughout Africa, throughout the Sahel, throughout places like Yemen and in the Greater Middle East, that it's still ripe for this. And unfortunately, some of these people are now in the United States that have these affiliations. So I'm very worried about it. And we challenged the last administration, and we will challenge this administration to do the right thing, to protect this country, to take the steps that we need to take in order to prevent another attack. And I think it starts with just transparency. We live in a dangerous world. It's not just the terrorism threat, and we're facing multiple threats, multiple different theaters.

• 6:00Speaker 01

  And we have to understand that it's asymmetric too. It's cyber, it's AI, and there's things that are now piling on. So deterrence is important, good policy is important, and we're going to keep pushing from our committee in a bipartisan way, by the way.

• 6:13Fran Racioppi?

  We've had a lot of conversations about readiness as it comes to the military. And when we think about readiness, we think about force structure, manning, training, leadership development, and equipping. And always when you Think about readiness. I go to the AUSA conference and you're like, man, okay, it's weaponry. But you have been bringing up the cyber threat and you've been a very vocal advocate that we have to really get on this cyber threat. We have seen attacks from North Korea. We've seen attacks from China, from Russia. How do we stay ahead of that when we always kind of default to, well, we need more weapons. Well, one of those weapons is a counter cyber capability.

• 6:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's a great point. And a lot of these tactics are kind of in the gray zone. Is it warfare? Is it crime? Is it somewhere in between? And I think that's where these non-nation state actors and even nation state sponsored cyber activities kind of lie in that gray zone. These gray zone tactics that undermine critical infrastructure, that undermine the financial sector, that dig into personal information. We've seen those breaches. So staying ahead of it is hard, but we have to be vigilant. And I think number one, it starts with the education throughout our country at universities like Angelo State that I represent, where we need kids focused on this, learning these skills and then going into this business. And then number two, putting real resources behind the defense of critical infrastructure here in the United States, working with the private industry,

• 7:38Speaker 01

  making sure it's not just a military activity. This is kind of a whole of government approach. And I don't think we've gotten there yet. So that we're going to keep challenging this administration to do those things and to protect us.

• 7:47Fran Racioppi?

  Transitioning out of the military is about more than polishing a resume or attending a LinkedIn workshop. It's about rediscovering your purpose and forging a new path that's worthy of your service. At the University of Health and Performance, veterans are offered transformative GI Bill approved programming designed to help take them to the next level with confidence. Nestled in the heart of the Ozarks, their 800 acre, all-inclusive campus features world-class training facilities, modern living spaces and miles of trails for reflection and growth. Here, veterans find a structured, immersive environment where they can explore their strengths, develop new skills and build a life that not only honors their past, but prepares the future. Well, I think it comes back to like, what's the attack on the homeland look like?

• 8:31Fran Racioppi?

  And you can classify that in a lot of different ways. You could say, okay, it can be a terrorist attack like we saw on January 1st. Is there a likelihood that someone's going to launch an international ballistic missile on us? Yeah, it's out there. It's probably on the one end of the spectrum that's out there. But think about like a denial of service attack. Take down the energy grid, the natural gas grid.

• 8:51Speaker 01

  Colonial Pipeline, for instance. You're right. These are the kinds of things. What about water treatment facilities in local communities? And that's where we're really vulnerable is some of the smaller communities, some of the smaller banks, some of the smaller entities that provide these services, denial of services. You nailed it. And that's what we're worried about. The government has to be able to provide a structure so that private industry can know the intel, be prepared for the techniques that they're using in the cyber domain and protect and push back and secure whatever it is that they're securing to make sure that they can provide those services.

• 9:24Fran Racioppi?

  So I want to ask, as we look at an organization like Doge now, in the last couple of days, there's been a lot of pressure on Elon Musk and the president about some of the cuts that they've made just over the last couple of weeks. If we tie that back to the national security, where does something like a denial of service attack fall? Is that homeland security? Is that the Department of Energy? Is that a DOD thing? How do you then go about, from your position in the House, appropriating funds?

• 9:52Speaker 01

  Yes, yes, and yes. It involves all of these agencies. What Elon Musk is doing is absolutely critical to national security. Because every dollar of improper payment that is going somewhere else is a dollar we're not spending on security. It's a dollar we're not spending on cyber defense. It's a dollar we're not spending on readiness. And so funneling that money back into the intended buckets to the recipients that really need it, to bolstering our defenses is critical. That there's, I think in the next couple of weeks, we are going to learn that there are billions and billions of dollars that were improperly spent, that were going to places that we never intended that Congress, Republicans and Democrats never signed up for, that we didn't approve. We've got to claw that back and then put it towards the right things, just like you said, to help the Department of Energy.

• 10:37Speaker 01

  The Department of Defense, Homeland Security, and all of those departments to have the right resources.

• 10:41Fran Racioppi?

  I got to ask you because we come from the special operations background, I got to ask you about the role of special operations in the future. So we've seen that we have seen appropriation of funds come away from SOF over the past couple of years because we've seen a huge investment in deep strike capability across all service components. But what we know is that what SOF's job is, is to do two things. One, we've got to operate in that left of bang, left of conflict area through strategic partnerships with our allies and our partners. And then number two, we have to keep the term near, in front of peer for all our nation-state adversaries. What do you see the role of special operations being as we prepare for the next conflict? Whether that be counterterrorism

• 11:24Fran Racioppi?

  or whether that be a nation-state on nation-state potential?

• 11:28Speaker 01

  Great point. We don't want them to be peer adversaries. We want to keep our competitive advantage. And I think while I didn't serve in the SOF world, our appreciation for having the innovative approach, always staying one step ahead of our enemies and being, if you need to be somewhere in undercover, you can do it. If we need to gather intel and surveil and have reconnaissance, you can do that. It's keeping that really innovative spirit going. You're right, all of these things have to come together. I think we need to look at the overall structure, the command and control structure of our military again. And I think we're at that point where we need to make some decisions on how we empower communities like the SOF community to keep doing the good work to have deterrence. It's all about deterrence at the end of the day. President Trump said it in his inaugural address,

• 12:13Speaker 01

  that the metric that we're going to measure ourselves by is the wars we don't fight. SOF plays a huge role in deterrence. And that, to me, is worth its weight in gold.

• 12:22Fran Racioppi?

  When faced with a challenge, Green Berets adapt, overcome, and keep moving forward. Now's your chance to stand with them. Join the 1952 Society with a monthly gift of just $19.52 to provide critical medical devices for wounded, ill, and injured Green Berets. Your support fuels their recovery, helping them return to duty or continue serving their communities. A Green Berets' mission never stops. Neither should our support. Join the 1952 Society today and stand with those who stand for us.

• 12:53Fran Racioppi?

  Last question, then we're gonna get you on your way. You've got a busy day ahead of you with some super important people. The military teaches us perspective. You're a fighter pilot. So for those of us who were on the ground while you were high above, we say you got the 30,000-foot view. And I always think about perspective like that because the situations we've been in, I think you had over 2,000 flight hours and 300 of those in combat environment. And so you look at things a little bit differently. Well, there are 100 veterans in Congress, but that means that there's 500 or so plus that have not served. But you've got to walk these halls with everybody every day. What are the lessons that you take from your time in service that you apply in the halls of Congress every day?

• 13:35Speaker 01

  Love this question. I just had a group of Air Force Academy cadets in my office, and we talked about this exact thing. And it's really teamwork that in a partisan and a bipartisan way, that there's a time to act as a team. We always had in our planning sessions when we would do missions to support those that were on the ground, to deter from not having to put boots on the ground. We have what was called the gickel, the good idea cutoff line. Okay, so you sit around the table and everybody argues for their version of how this mission is going to go. And it's heated discussion. But at the end of that mission planning time, you slap the table. You agree to sometimes disagree on the exact approach, but you agree on the approach that we're going to take. That's the lesson that Congress can learn,

• 14:18Speaker 01

  both in a partisan and a bipartisan way, is let's agree to slap the table. Let's agree to move on. Let's not hold things up. Let's strengthen our economy, strengthen our military, strengthen our national defense and our security. And slapping the table with a good idea cutoff line is important. Unfortunately, some of our colleagues don't like that approach. They want to, at the end of the planning session, they want to keep going and be an obstructionist to that. It's okay to stand your ground, but it's also okay to say, I stood my ground. I fought for what I thought. And now we got 80% of it, but not 100, and that's okay. And that's the lesson that I think the military veterans bring to Congress is that understanding.

• 14:54Fran Racioppi?

  Yep. Once the decision is made, you get on board, you've got to go. You've got to execute. Well, Congressman, I appreciate your time today. It's good to gather your perspective and your thoughts on where we are today. We've got a lot to do. It's happening really fast around us. But our veteran community is going to be really, I think, impactful and impacted by this administration in the next couple of years. And I appreciate all you're doing.

• 15:14Speaker 01

  Thanks for being here.

• 15:15Fran Racioppi?

  Thank you.

• 15:18Fran Racioppi?

  American Jedbergs went on to form the Foundation of the United States Special Forces and the Special Activities Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Thanks for listening to the Jedburgh Podcast, an official program of the Green Beret Foundation. I'm your creator and host, Fran Rychowi. Join us next week for a new episode on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check us out on YouTube for full episodes, highlights, and other long and short form content. If you like what you heard, give us a like and leave a review. Follow the Jedburgh Podcast and the Green Beret Foundation on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, X for threads. Send your comments and inquiries to [email protected]. As former members of Special Operations Forces, the Jedburgh Media Channel, and the Green Beret Foundation remain committed to supporting all generations of US Army Special Forces and their families.

• 16:02Fran Racioppi?

  Thanks for joining us on this episode. How you prepare today determines success tomorrow.