Chuck Grassley: “The Armed Services Committee is trying very hard in this legislation to blow the lid right off the caps with section 804…”

“The Armed Services Committee is trying very hard in this legislation to blow the lid right off the caps with section 804 of the bill. The committee wants to reach deeper into the taxpayers' pockets by doing this. I do not understand why, and I want to know why. What is the basis for the decision? I know during this debate we are going to find that out. I know sincere people on the other side of the aisle are going to tell us the justification for it, but I want to tell my colleagues why I think the legislation is wrong. Because before we give executives a pay raise, we should know how much public money they get in the first place. That is where this debate should begin. That is taking us right back to square one. We cannot figure out where we need to go until we know where we are. And we do not know where we are on this subject of executive pay. The committee made the decision to lift the caps and, I think, without the facts. The committee needs to answer a key question. How much is the Department of Defense paying industry executives today? The committee does not have the answer to that question. Back in January, Senator Boxer and I tried to get that answer.”