James M. Jeffords: “I would like to talk just a minute about the need for available space for training. I was in the Navy. I was on board a…”

“I would like to talk just a minute about the need for available space for training. I was in the Navy. I was on board a destroyer. I was a gunnery officer. We were involved in wartime activity in Lebanon. Our training and all was for shore-fire bombardment. I understand what is needed and what is necessary, and I know this bill is carefully crafted to ensure there will be adequate space for the types of operations I participated in. I know our military is pretty efficient and there are areas that are designated that they cannot hit. There is always a chance they might, but they can rearrange things to make sure those areas are not in their gun sights. It is not anything that is of great difficulty to do. These are huge areas. So I think the arrangement we have under this amendment is very reasonable and, from my own experience, quite possible to keep everybody happy. So I disagree with the comments of my chairman.”