Political Quotes

“Mr. President, on behalf of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I am pleased to bring to the Senate the conference report on H.R. 1540, the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2012. This conference report, which was signed by all 26 Senate conferees, contains many provisions that are of critical importance to our troops. This will be the 50th consecutive year in which a National Defense Authorization Act has been enacted into law. I thank all of the members and staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee--and especially our subcommittee chairs and our ranking members--for the hard work they have done to get us to this stage. Every year we take on tough issues and we work through them on a bipartisan basis, consistent with the traditions of our committee. This year was a particularly difficult one because of the severely condensed timeline for floor consideration and conference on the bill. I particularly thank my friend Senator McCain, our ranking minority member, for his strong support throughout the process. I know both of us thank the chairman and ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, Buck McKeon and Adam Smith, for their commitment to this bill and to the men and women of our Armed Forces. The conference report we bring to the floor today authorizes $662 billion for national defense programs.…”