Political Quotes

“House Resolution 937 provides for consideration of the conference report for the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2017. This marks the 55th consecutive year that the House and Senate are coming together to pass a bill to authorize spending and set policy for our Nation's military. Just as important, as is the case with most of our work on the Armed Services Committee that I have the privilege to serve on, this was a bipartisan process that allowed for numerous members to have input into the final bill. That is a testament to the great work and leadership of Chairman Mac Thornberry, Ranking Member Adam Smith, our subcommittee chairmen and the entire committee staff. This is truly a professional team that puts in long hours to make this bill possible, and they deserve a lot of credit for their efforts. Mr. Speaker, I have said on this floor many times before that our military faces a serious readiness crisis. Budget cuts have really thinned out our military and hurt our ability to train and prepare for conflict. One of the most startling examples of this readiness crisis is the fact that some of our marines have been forced to get parts for their F-18s off of planes in a museum. That is simply absurd and it is deeply troubling. Just as bad, less than one-third of Army forces are at acceptable readiness levels for ground combat and our pilots are getting less training than many of our adversaries.…”