Steve Womack: “This is, in my serious opinion, one of the most pressing issues facing the Congress of the United States. And that is to…”

This is not an attempt to undo the Guard. It is a very small number of people.

I think a lot of us up here would agree that the federal bureaucracy has become bloated, but I think we need to be a little bit more precise in downsizing a department with a mission as critical.

Before I close, let me say, as most of my colleagues know and as Mr. Clyburn pointed out, my presence here today in the face of a terrible, personal hardship--the loss of my wife of over 41 years--I hope is indicative of the importance of…

I am going to take that 30 seconds and brag on this guy right here, Tom Cole. He has reengineered, somewhat reinvented a lost appropriations process, and I am eternally grateful. I know I speak for the American people in thanking Mr. Cole…