Mark Pryor: “I will try to keep my remarks to about 5 minutes, although I would first like to thank Senators Levin and McCain for…”

“I will try to keep my remarks to about 5 minutes, although I would first like to thank Senators Levin and McCain for their leadership on this legislation. They truly set the tone, and they have been good role models for the entire Senate on how legislation should be conducted. So I wish to thank both of them. I think many of my colleagues feel the very same way; that we appreciate how they have handled the national defense authorization bill. It has been a massive undertaking and sometimes, as we know, we have a lot of gridlock around here, but because of the way they have handled it, they have been able to get this bill to this point. I am not going to object to this bill at all. At one point I thought about it because I am so upset--in fact, my staff has even said livid, and I have been livid--about how one item has been handled by the Air Force; that is, as we all know, about 10 months ago the Air Force came out with a proposed force restructure and that included taking an A-10 unit away from the Arkansas National Guard that is based in Fort Smith, AR. Understandably, when something such as that happens, we have questions. So, 10 months ago, I started asking: Why are you doing this? Give me your analysis. Tell me how much money you are going to save. Are you aware you have Fort Chaffee right off the end of the runway-- and I will talk about this in just a minute.…”