Daniel Inouye: “of course, I commend my colleague from Arizona for bringing this matter to the attention of the Senate. Every Member of…”

“of course, I commend my colleague from Arizona for bringing this matter to the attention of the Senate. Every Member of this body is desirous of providing the finest defense at the least cost. There are a few things that we should remind ourselves. First is the Constitution of the United States. Mr. President, it is not the President who is responsible to declare war, to raise and support armies, to provide and maintain a Navy, to make rules for the Government on regulations of land and naval forces. That is the power of the Congress of the United States. We, the Members of the Congress, were not elected by our constituents to serve as rubber stamps of the Secretary of Defense or, for that matter, of the President of the United States. As my distinguished colleague from Alaska pointed out, if it were not for the initiative taken by this committee, the C-17 would not be in existence, the V-22 would be a thing of the past, the Patriot upgrade would not have helped our troops in Desert Storm. For that matter, I think we should recall, in early 1990, when the seas were calm and the Middle East seemed to be a tranquil place, the Pentagon was considering doing away with the central command. That is fact, Mr. President. They were about to break up the central command and retire General Schwarzkopf.”