Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Senate amendments to H.R. 4899, the Supplemental Appropriations Act for 2010. This legislation is critically important to providing funding to our men and women in uniform who are serving in harm's way. However, this legislation also provides funding that is important to maintaining our strategic posture in the Pacific. The legislation contains $50 million in transfer authority of Department of Defense operation and maintenance funding to the Guam Port Improvement Enterprise Fund at the Maritime Administration. The $50 million in funding is critical for the Port of Guam, in consultation with the Maritime Administration, to begin necessary infrastructure improvements and modernization. The Port of Guam, on many occasions, has been identified as a potential chokepoint for the delivery of materials and supplies to support the realignment of military forces to Guam and sustain economic development on the island. Without these improvements the realignment of military forces to Guam would be severely delayed, add additional costs to future military construction and potentially harm our civilian economic development. Moreover, these improvements are needed to facilitate the requirements of being designated a strategic port, in fact America's most forward located strategic port in the Western Pacific. The funding for the Port of Guam in this bill marks an important and very positive step forward for the military build-up on Guam.…”