Tom Harkin actually said...

The funding you're going to approve now is what kind of defense my kids and grandkids are going to have 5, 10 years from now, sir.

Emphasizing the importance of current funding for future national security.

09/28/2010

More Tom Harkin Quotes

If you don't have the figure now, maybe you could just transmit it to us later on, just how much is this going to cost.

That's very timely.

We want the best science rewarded. If it's not in Iowa, then it's someplace else. But it's got to be the best science.

It has to do with the tension between more grants for less money, fewer grants for more money.