KYLE MURPHYStaff Writer

During her trip to Coffee County, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., made a stop at the Tullahoma Noon Rotary Club to talk about what she’s doing for Tennessee and Arnold Air Force Base.

Blackburn was the special guest speaker for the Jan. 27 meeting of the Tullahoma Noon Rotary Club, which was her third stop of the day as she visited Coffee County Mayor Judd Matheny’s office and Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) to talk about the growth of both the county and the base.

“I visit with every county in state every year and coming to Coffee County, meeting with the [Coffee County] mayor, going through the needs of the county, going over to Arnold, being here at Rotary gives me the opportunity to hear firsthand from people and I appreciate that,” Blackburn told The News.

After being introduced by Dr. Paul Bass, Blackburn began by talking about the growth that is expected in Coffee County and told club members that she is a believer of the potential of AEDC and said that the future of the military will come from the innovations work in Huntsville and AEDC, noting she was able to get $139 million for AEDC’s growth and expansion in the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

“We are looking at how the increased funding that [AEDC] received, and being able to see how they are going to use that and that is something exciting to do,” she said.

She added when looking at the testing capabilities of AEDC and the potential of Space Force’s moving its headquarters in Huntsville, Ala., the future of the military will be through the innovations at Huntsville and the air force base, stating that is America does star wars.

“It is going to be individuals in this part of the state and in northern Alabama that are going to be working and developing,” she said. “It’s a good thing for AEDC and this region of the state, it’s a good thing for the state of Tennessee and it’s a good thing for the United States.”

Blackburn then briefly touched on the current situation with the debt ceiling and said she and her colleagues want to return to pre-pandemic spending and advocated for 1%, 2% and 5% across-the-board spending cuts, which she has done since her time as member of the House of Representatives.

She also commented on the recent findings of classified documents found in the residences of President Joe Biden, former Vice President Mike Pence and former President Donald Trump. She said given that has to she leave her office to go to a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) and follow a strict protocol in viewing classified documents, she doesn’t know how someone could leave with a classified document.

“I would never receive a classified briefing in my office or over an iPhone, I go there to the SCIF,” Blackburn said, “and you stay in that classified area with that classified document.”

She mentioned that Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., are currently working together to look into the contents of the documents.

She moved on to talk about the COVID-19 and how she, with other lawmakers, introduced legislation earlier in the week to create an inspector general at the National Institutes of Health to look into how the agency is handling taxpayer money, which is due to a money trail leading to the Wuhan lab in China. She also talked about the southern border and how the cartels are controlling the border with who and what is crossing the border.

Blackburn told The News the topics she discussed with the Rotarians are based on what questions her office receives on social media, emails and so on.

“We were hearing from people here a lot about the debt ceiling, a lot about the NDAA funding and opportunity of Arnold, we were hearing a lot about when are going to hear about COVID. We were hearing so much about the border,” she said. “We actually had a lot of input from people here after I made my border trip so I knew they would want to hear that because that relates to the crime and drug issue, and we heard a lot about accountability about the documents.”

Blackburn took some time to take some questions from the audience that not only were about what she discussed but some other topics like the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement might send migrants to Tennessee, toxic cooperation within Congress, Ukraine and budget amendments.

Before leaving to continue her visits to other counties, Blackburn thanked everyone for their time and questions and said she loves visiting Coffee County.

“I love coming down here. I’ve known Mayor Matheny for a long time and I love being here,” Blackburn said. “Good things are going to happen to Coffee County and I look forward to continue to working with them.”