Barbara Boxer: “That is a Citation X. The point I am making is there is nothing in the language, I say to my dear friend, that suggests…”

“That is a Citation X. The point I am making is there is nothing in the language, I say to my dear friend, that suggests exactly what plane they are going to use. There is nothing in this language. Last year, under the same language, the Air Force leased the Gulfstream. That is the point we are making. We are not limiting them to this. I have to say that I know we are in a surplus situation. But we have a lot of needs for our military personnel. I know my friends fought for that. We are looking at military personnel who are not living in adequate housing. We know that Senator McCain has taken the lead in trying to get our people off food stamps. We have an unfunded priority of veterans' health. I think what Senator Harkin and I are simply saying is this: It is unnecessary to have this many planes when we now have a quite unbiased report that says, 'Operational Support Airlift requirements are not sufficiently justified.' Why would we run off and buy more when we don't know what we have? We have seen with vague language we could wind up with top-of-the-line jets.”