Political Quotes

“I want to address just one point from my friend from Ohio, and that is that the combat air patrols that are listed in the bill and in the report are listed as Operation Noble Eagle, which is combat air patrols over the United States, over American cities, which have been ongoing, and I believe there are some $500-plus-million in the bill for that. I would further say that this bill came up in two pieces, which is extremely unusual for our system. One reason it came up in two pieces was because we were undertaking continuing military operations and, because of that, the chairman of the full committee, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stump), at whose direction I am acting today, worked with the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton), and we put together a bipartisan bill that did give some direction to where some of this money went. Let me just describe for the Members where some of the money went. Some of it went to what is known as combat pay enhancements.”