Political Quotes

“let me start off by giving also my congratulations to our chairman, the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. Spence] who has done a superb job of working on this defense bill, walking us through the hearings that we had to have in rapid fire order, marshaling this great staff that we have got on the majority side and the minority side to put this bill together, answering the tough questions and the tough issues that we had to answer this year in bringing it to the floor. Let me thank him. Let me also thank the ranking member the gentleman from California [Mr. Dullums], and let me tell my colleagues as we go through the debate, and Mr. Dellums reminded us that we have had in the past some long debates on defense issues, I remember the 6-week debate we had on the nuclear freeze that we Republicans enjoyed, quite frankly, and the great times that we have had engaging. I wish myself that we had more time to discuss the top line because I think it is a great debate; I agree with the gentleman that it is an important issue for the country. Let me answer what I think are three important questions that the American people have about this bill. First, do we need this level of spending? And this level of spending is a little over $12 million above what the President has asked for. The answer, I think is yes, and I think our hearings showed that we need this level of spending.”