Steve Womack: “It is embarrassing that we, the adults in the room here on the Appropriations Committee, cannot get out of our own way.”

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.

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…

There are only about 578 people that will be affected by this. You know, the Guard is over 100,000.

By the way, I have got to leave here in a minute and go meet with the city of Fort Smith board of directors.