Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I yield myself 2 minutes. Mr. Chair, I am curious here about the history of the United States Government putting its finger on the scale. Let's think for a moment about the way in which the railroad industry was created in the United States. We are talking not only a finger, a thumb, but the extraordinary weight of the Federal Government creating it. Let's talk about nuclear energy. Let's talk about aircraft. Let's talk about the airline industry. When we talk about anything in modern America today, in one way or another, the Federal Government led and caused in part, together with the private sector, for the industry to develop. What we are doing here in the NDAA is to set out a mechanism using the military to bring into the economy new technologies that are sustainable and that reduce greenhouse gases. If you want to buy steel from several American steel companies, this amendment would make it impossible for the military to buy that steel because they are using sustainable methods of creating the steel. Throughout the entire system, we find the military moving toward sustainability, reducing costs, and, I might add here, maintaining the standard that is necessary for that particular steel structure. It could be sustainable, using hydrogen rather than coal to create the steel. It could be wood, cross-laminated wood products, which previously were not used by the military because they weren't considered.…”