Political Quotes

“in the defense bill we have language dealing with land withdrawal. This is a project that the Air Force has been working on for some years. The language that I have now proposed to the Senate is the perfecting language which has been provided to us. Madam President, this concerns the 366th Composite Wing which is bedded down at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. This is a composite wing that consists of F-15s, F-16s, B-1 bombers, and C-135 tankers. This allows them to train as they fight. This is one of our rapid deployment Air Force units that would be called to respond anywhere in the world where we may have a terrible situation. The current range that we have in place, there is only one direction--that is from the south--from which you can access that range. That worked when this was not a composite wing, but now that you have all of these different aircraft there, they need to have much greater ability for training purposes. This would allow us to maximize training for this situation. After many, many months of a process, I will tell you that this is something that has been a high priority for the White House, for the Air Force, for the Department of the Interior, for BLM, for the Governor of the State of Idaho, and for the Idaho delegation. With regard to the process, Madam President, this is a process that has taken 22 years to get us to this point-- 22 years.”