Political Quotes

“a couple of days ago I announced, along with the chairman of the Committee on National Security, that we were going to address a shortfall in funding under the Clinton administration budget that seriously impeded the capability of our pilots to operate their aircraft effectively and safely. That was done on the heels of the hearing in which we talked about the three, now four, F-14 crashes since the first of January and the three AV-8B Harrier Marine Corps jet aircraft crashes since the first of January. We talked about the fact that the Clinton administration is not going to spend the money to make the safety upgrades to 24 of the Marine aircraft that are going to be piloted by young Americans. The chairman of the full committee, my friend Floyd Spence and I made the decision that we would commit to spend the money that was necessary to upgrade those aircraft so that they are 50 percent safer than they would otherwise be, and we also made the commitment to make the $83 million in safety upgrades to the F-14 aircraft. It was an indication to me, Mr. Speaker, that the Clinton administration's defense budget, which has been slashed in excess of $150 billion below the budget put together by Dick Cheney and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell, it was another indication to me that this budget is coming apart at the seams.”