Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I appreciate and I understand the Senators' concerns about this issue as they have been expressed here this afternoon. I also very much appreciate their understanding relative to the extremely short period for conference this year where we worked through hundreds of provisions with our House colleagues in about a week, a process that usually takes a month or more. While I am proud of what we were able to accomplish in this bill as a whole, it was probably likely that some language would need more consideration because of the time constraints we were operating under. Before I continue, I want to state my appreciation to the Members who spoke here this afternoon and members of the Armed Services Committee. They make major contributions to this committee. I listened carefully to what our colleagues have had to say about the depot maintenance issue. I believe their concerns are substantive and merit careful consideration from the Armed Services Committee. This is an issue that was brought to our conference in the House bill. The depot maintenance provisions that were approved by the House last May arose out of a congressionally mandated independent review of the statutes, regulations, and policies guiding depot maintenance performance and reporting. The House conferees then proposed modifications to their own provisions based on the results of a series of discussions with stakeholders held throughout the summer at the National Defense University.…”