I just wanted to rise and talk a little bit about a great former member who just passed away, Bill Dickinson of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, and my colleagues, when I came in in 1981 and campaigned with Ronald Reagan in that great year in which…

I can't match the eloquent statements about Tom that have been made by my colleagues; but I thought I might share just a few thoughts that came to my mind, not only today, but every day that I saw Tom Lantos. First, he was a guy of extreme…

I want to thank the last speaker for his statement and for his wonderful contribution on the Armed Services Committee in terms of working the jammer issues, and lots of other Members who have worked these important force protection issues…

The Republican motion to instruct puts the House of Representatives on record acknowledging the consequences of a vote for a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq and not fully funding our troops and their missions. It instructs House conferees…

Let me tell you why I think it is important to pass this motion to instruct. We built the bridge fund. The Armed Services Committee realized we have the winter months when you need funding for the troops before you get to the spring…

But let me tell you, this provision in this particular bill is terrible for the warfighters. Let me talk about a small piece of it. You have what I call a 15-day wait, notify and hold provision. That means before any unit can go into Iraq…

I am unalterably against this deal because I think it doesn't fix the basic defect that we have seen in every trade deal that we have made in recent years. That defect is, as most of my colleagues know and understand, that the competitors…

I want to thank my great colleague for yielding me some time and just follow my colleagues to again commend all of those who helped to take on this incredible challenge and to defeat this fire. Even though it destroyed lots of sagebrush…

what I have in front of me is the actual testimony of Mr. Butler, who says this: ``The Department of State has devoted considerable effort and resources helping courageous Iraqis establish mechanisms and procedures to investigate and…

I have examined and analyzed a number of battlefield situations and that this bill does not take care of a problem that we have with respect to accessing communications in time to take action in a meaningful way. Whether the insurgents are…

The military is not broken. The Army is not broken. The Marine Corps is not broken. This continued depiction of our military people as victims who are totally desperate... is totally in error. We have never had better morale. We have never…

My son is a marine who is doing his third tour. He is calm. He is determined. He loves his country, just like all of his fellow marines. The constant illustrating or projecting of our Armed Forces as somehow victims is something that finds…

let me make this point: we are in two warfighting theaters right now, Afghanistan and Iraq. We have troops deployed. We are, by all accounts at this point, doing well in those warfighting theaters. Somebody stays in battle space. For the…

let me explain why this case is different from all the rest. This is an extraordinary case. It's a case which, even if you accept the drug dealer's word and all of his testimony as fact, finds results in not only the Members who have…

But, Mr. Speaker, let me say this about this piece of legislation which has been brought by the Democrat leadership before this House. This is an attempt once again to stampede a retreat from Iraq, and it is a gratuitous attempt to do…

Unfortunately, I oppose this bill for this reason: We passed out what I think was a pretty good bill out of the House. That bill had in it several critical national security elements. One of those elements was that any member of this…

this is a good Defense bill, and I want to compliment my great friend the gentleman from Missouri for his leadership in helping to put together this bill that passed the committee unanimously, came to the floor, and we can expect a big…

This is a net cut in missile defense. This is not a matter of taking money from something that we don't need and moving it to something we urgently need. This is a net cut of $764 million. Now, my great friend from North Carolina (Mr…

One observation that I have made over the years in being around people that wear the uniform is that while a number of the stresses and the difficulties that have been spoken of are real, it is also real that the coolest, calmest, most…

I support his amendment. As many of us on the Armed Services Committee have traveled to Iraq a number of times, and we utilize right now bases throughout Iraq, like the Balad Air Base, which was previously a fighter air base for Saddam…

we've looked over the amendment. It's really an adjustment of a part of the base bill that we have that allows for this memorandum of understanding between these three primary entities, State, DOD and AID, to make sure that they have an…

I support the chairman and I will support the gentleman's request for a study by the GAO after 1 year to assess the impact to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the DOD of providing Federal pricing to DOD to purchase drugs in a retail…

My amendment that I've offered is very simple and straightforward. It requests that the Secretary of Defense, in concurrence with the Secretary of State, issue to Congress a review of declassification procedures that are in place to…

we are in strong opposition to this amendment. In fact, the Armed Services Committee under the very able chairmanship of the gentleman from Missouri has finished a number of oversight hearings. The subcommittees that are involved in the…

I am looking at scenarios, and if you have a scenario where you have convoys of IED material being moved from Iran into Iraq and you want to send a team over and make a strike and close a canyon or close a mountain pass or hit that convoy…