Barbara Boxer: “What it shows is exactly what my friend is saying, aircraft should be able to fly no-wind range of 5,000 nautical miles.…”

“What it shows is exactly what my friend is saying, aircraft should be able to fly no-wind range of 5,000 nautical miles. Only two aircraft, this one called the Global Express--that is made in Canada, and then the Gulfstream V, which, as my friend pointed out, the Air Force has put out this proposal, it is in the 5,000 nautical mile range. So this is the characteristic. If you look at this and other characteristics, it can only be these luxury jets. But I wanted to ask my friend if he saw the letter from the Department of Defense to the General Accounting Office on page 27 of this report. I ask him to take a look at it because it seems to me, any thinking person would read this and say the Department of Defense agrees with Harkin and Boxer. If you look at this letter in the second paragraph, it says: The department agrees with many of the findings in the GAO report. Accordingly, it will take the GAO's findings into consideration in future determinations of operational support airlift. That is very nice. When will they take it into consideration? After they have sprung for half a billion dollars of the taxpayers' money? What we are saying is we have this report, folks. Yet in this particular bill before us, I wonder if my friend is aware, in order to take effect these leases must be done before 2004. So they are essentially rushing to run out and lease these aircraft so, as my friend says, they can have the same aircraft as the Air Force.”