Political Quotes

“It is not even really easy or practical to do what the chairman and the sponsor of the amendment are just proposing. There is not a fine line between what is overseas and what is domestic. Let me give you an example. I have a brigade combat team from Fort Carson in my district that is now in Afghanistan. One of the things that is called for to be expensed in this report is training exercises. Okay. When the brigade combat team is in Fort Carson in Colorado training to go over to Afghanistan, at what point do you draw the line and say: Oh, that is domestic; everything beyond that is foreign? Is it when they step on the airplane? Is it when the airplane lands at Bagram in Afghanistan? Is it when they start doing live-fire exercises in Colorado? Where do you draw the line there? This is really not even a well-written amendment. It is very impractical. But the worst objection to this amendment is it abdicates responsibility. The chairman said let's have the Department tell us what they are doing. No, they tell us what they are doing, and we determine whether that is what they should be doing. This amendment is calling for the national security benefits to be told us by the Department of Defense. That is our oversight role as Congress. We oversee the Department of Defense. We determine if they are giving us the national security benefits that we tell them to give us. We don't tell them: Tell us what you are doing and tell us if what you are doing is okay and helpful.…”