Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the amendment offered and in support of the bill as well, the defense authorization bill as well, but in opposition certainly to the Murphy amendment on the Don't Ask, Don't Tell, reversing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. One thing that I think hasn't been raised, certainly what the amendment states is that the Congress of the United States will in fact delegate to the Department of Defense, to the Secretary of the Department of Defense and to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the ability to simply do the assessment based on the survey to make that decision. But I think the reality is, unfortunately, these are not independent positions. The President, at the end of the day, is the Commander in Chief, and the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff report to the Commander in Chief. So I question the ability for them to make an independent decision. This policy was put in place by the Congress of the United States, and it ought to be the Congress of the United States that ultimately repeals it based on the findings of the study for which I believe that we have the responsibility to review. So I would hope that we would, in fact, vote down the Murphy amendment, do our job in terms of reviewing the findings of the views of the men and women of the Armed Forces of the United States that this study is, in fact, to put forward their concerns about the challenges of reversing the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.…”