Ellen Tauscher: “I just want to once again remind everyone what this is really about. We have an excellent national defense authorization…”

“I just want to once again remind everyone what this is really about. We have an excellent national defense authorization bill for fiscal year 2008. It has broad bipartisan support, bicameral support, both the House and the Senate. Most Members voted for this bill when it came to the floor in the spring. We are about to go to conference and make sure that the bills become congruent so we can send it to the President. This is a bill that the President must sign. It has so many good things in it. I want to take a couple of seconds and talk about the fact that Democrats, who took majority in January, have written their first bill in 13 years, and there are many, many good things in here that we are very proud of. We have done many things for the troops. We have included a 3.5 percent pay raise. We have prohibited increases in their health care, which is called TRICARE, and pharmacy user fees. The bill also provides $980 million for National Guard equipment.”