Political Quotes

“first let me express my great respect for the gentleman who is offering this amendment. He does wonderful work on the committee and truly has a heart for those who have been impacted by the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. On that point, I would say I remember the time we were in Fallujah and a young Marine captain came up to us with some language he had written. In fact, his name was Kevin Coughlin. He thinks he has traded up. He moved on to the FBI from the committee staff. But we were so impressed with the language he had written to protect translators that we brought him back with us and made him part of the HASC staff. He did leave us a 'Dear John' note after he left to go to work for the FBI, but a great young Marine captain. And he felt the same way we had, which is that our translators needed to be protected. We have a program which protects them. Now, the question here is, are we going to mandate employment for them? That is the way I read this particular legislation. I don't think that is the right way to go. I think that, first, a lot of these folks have got great initiative. They are happy to be in a free country. If we have a program to help make sure they know of all the job opportunities that are available and perhaps help them with language, make sure that they are connected with folks that are recruiting our people who need those language talents, I think that is great.”