Christopher Shays: “As a longtime critic of the manner in which we finance our nation's military, I had intended to oppose the legislation…”

“As a longtime critic of the manner in which we finance our nation's military, I had intended to oppose the legislation being considered today. This year's defense budget contains a number of deficiencies, the most glaring of which is this: it is not designed to equip our military for the task at hand. Written prior to the attack of September the 11th, this legislation continues the mistakes of the past decade. It is designed to fight the cold war, but that war ended years ago, and as we saw all too brutally in New York and Washington, the world is a far more dangerous place. Furthermore, this bill leaves our military, on the eve of an epic undertaking, with a number of acute needs that have yet to be adequately addressed--needs we've known about for many years. As the chairman of the Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, which has oversight jurisdiction over the entire Department of Defense, I have seen first hand the needs of our military. We need to do a better job attracting new enlistees and maintaining the necessary level of reenlistment. Our training has suffered in recent years. We lack the necessary munitions for new encounters. We are cannibalizing existing planes, tanks and other equipment for their parts, in order to make other equipment operational. Our soldiers, sailors, pilots and Marines are overworked and underpaid. At least this last part we have begun to address.”