Jane Harman: “to paraphrase an old ad, when Ellen Tauscher and Ike Skelton speak, I listen. They work together carefully on important…”

“to paraphrase an old ad, when Ellen Tauscher and Ike Skelton speak, I listen. They work together carefully on important legislation, and this is a piece of important legislation. I don't know about others in this Chamber, but I am tired. We have been working all day and all night for weeks to try to get to an August recess after accomplishing as much as possible. It is 100 degrees outside. The humidity level is very high, but we are in an air-conditioned place. In contrast to us, over 100,000 American troops, very brave kids, are in 120 degree weather with 40 to 75 pounds of equipment on their backs, bravely defending America. I think as tired as I am, this bill strikes the right tone and says that in order to fulfill our constitutional duty to provide for the common defense, our constitutional duty to provide for the common defense, we have to make sure that we have a ready military. Mr. Speaker, we don't. It is broken. Every expert we have heard from knows that. Our failure to plan adequately for the post-military phase in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere has created a broken military. So I commend the sponsor of this bill and the others who have helped draft it. I am proud to be a cosponsor in the effort to state clearly that the kids we have sent into harm's way should get the rest and training they deserve.”