Andrew P. Hunter: “I hope that this is the start of a bipartisan effort to put together a defense bill in the coming year which is adequate…”

“I hope that this is the start of a bipartisan effort to put together a defense bill in the coming year which is adequate to serve our country's needs. Let me just tell my colleagues that from my perspective, and I heard the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham) make a number of very, very good points with respect to inadequacies, I think we are about $50 billion short, and I think all of the studies that we have done, such as the CBO, which says that our equipment is short-funded about $30 billion a year. That means if we have to replace trucks, tanks, ships, planes, on a steady state just to keep them halfway modern, we need to spend an extra $30 billion a year in the defense area. We are underfunded on munitions.”