John Ensign: “I rise today to make some brief comments about the Defense authorization bill. First, I compliment the chairman and…”

“I rise today to make some brief comments about the Defense authorization bill. First, I compliment the chairman and ranking member for working hard on this legislation. I also thank the professional staff, both on the committee as well as the personal staffs. It was my first year on the committee, and it was an incredible process. There were many controversial and complex issues on which we worked together. In the end, we have done a lot for the members of our military, our Armed Forces serving in this country and around the world. With the global war on terrorism, these issues have become more important than ever: To make sure they have the resources to fight the global war on terrorism and to ensure a quality of life so we can maintain the all-volunteer professional armed services we have. Several issues covered in my subcommittee, the Readiness Subcommittee, were very important. We have a problem with our ranges. Dealing with readiness, we have to have the proper training facilities. This bill helps us address some of those issues. The military does such a fabulous job protecting the environment on its training ranges that the use of those ranges almost became threatened. This bill makes sure that the training ranges and the environment are protected, while the military can still use the training ranges. That was a very important part of this Defense authorization bill.”