Political Quotes

“Yesterday I convened a panel of the procurement subcommittee of the Committee on National Security to investigate the series of tragic mishaps with respect to F-14 crashed and Aviate B Harrier Marine Corps fighter aircraft crashes that have occurred since the beginning of the year, and, Mr. Speaker, it is very clear to us and to my friend, Mr. Dornan, who has quite a bit of time in an Air Force cockpit, and my good friend, Mr. Cunningham, my seatmate from San Diego, that it is dangerous to be a pilot in the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Marine Corps; it is more dangerous to be a pilot when you have a government that will not pay the money that has to be paid to make that aircraft as safe as it can possibly be made. The testimony from the U.S. Marine Corps yesterday was that Harriers are tough aircraft to fly. Almost one-third of the entire Harrier air inventory, aircraft inventory, has crashed since its inception, and we have had three tragic crashes this year of these Harrier Jumpjets. The Marine Corps told us yesterday that we could make that plane 50 percent more safe than it is right now, and we do that by remanufacturing the aircraft and adding safety features. They told us that the Clinton administration has decided not to make 24 of those aircraft as safe as they can be, and when we asked why, we were told because of budgetary constraints. So, Mr. Speaker, for the first time, we are seeing the Clinton defense budget come apart at the seams.”