Daniel Inouye: “This letter makes it very clear that: [The] USS Missouri belongs in Pearl Harbor, within site of the USS Arizona, where…”

“This letter makes it very clear that: [The] USS Missouri belongs in Pearl Harbor, within site of the USS Arizona, where future generations can come and understand America's involvement in World War II, from beginning to end. Mr. President, the GAO report has been cited. The GAO report makes it very clear that Pearl Harbor won the competition without question. And, more importantly, Hawaii did not lose the competition even if it is based solely on financial and technical issues. Mr. President, I realize that no one relishes the thought of losing. We all want to win. But the human affairs of this Nation would tell us that at times one wins and another loses. And if we are to set a precedent that whenever someone loses that he will come to Congress to appeal his case, the process that we have established for the past decades to determine decisions that are very necessary to our Defense Department, if such be subject to appeal at each turn by the Congress, we will get nowhere. I just hope that those of us here will recognize from this report and from all other reports that this competition was won fairly and impartially and that it is in the public interest and the interests of the Navy and our Nation that this ship be based in Pearl Harbor.”