Political Quotes

“I thank Mr. Smith for yielding and compliments to him and Chairman Thornberry for the outstanding work, again, that the two of them have collaborated on to keep this really massive undertaking on schedule. It is really a very truncated schedule this year, but they both did it. Again, it is kudos to both of them in terms of their leadership skills. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the 2018 NDAA. Front and center in our deliberations in the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee on which I serve with Chairman Wittman, who is in his first term and did an outstanding job, was the build-up of our Navy fleet which has been a multiyear process of strategic planning. {time} 2015 In December of last year, the prior Navy secretary, Ray Mabus, who served in the prior administration, released an updated force structure assessment that laid out the requirement for increasing the Navy's fleet from 308 ships to 355. Then, in January, Navy officials outlined a plan to get us on a construction plan to get us on a path to a larger fleet. In early May, the chief of naval operations emphasized that ``time is of the essence'' in growing the Navy. The stage was set to get started on the larger fleet. That was why so many of us were surprised on May 23 and disappointed when the White House sent over basically a 308-ship budget for a 355-ship fleet. I am proud to say that, on a bipartisan basis, we have done much better in this bill than the budget that came over.…”