I just wanted to get on the record that I support this amendment very strongly, the idea of saving energy. I would hope that the gentleman would agree that, wherever possible, the energy-saving devices, these light bulbs, should be made in…

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…

My colleagues, I have a lot of respect for my friend from Virginia, but this amendment is a bad amendment. It's an amendment which goes to the very core of the Guantanamo facility, the purpose of the Guantanamo facility, the nature of the…

You know, in Iraq it is tough, it is difficult, it is dusty and it is dangerous; but we are following the same pattern that we followed for the last 60 years in bringing freedom to other parts of the world. It is not a smooth road. First…

I just want to mention that in 2005, and working with Mr. Buyer and working with Mr. Skelton and other Members of the Armed Services Committee and Veterans' Affairs Committee, we put together this Disability Claims Commission with an eye…

I just want to take a second, Mr. Chairman, to thank the gentleman who just spoke as one of the finest members of our committee and to point out, too, and he went over a number of the high points in this bill, and this idea of having an…

Mr. Speaker, let me just say we took a 1999 101st Airborne battalion. We compared them today with the 100,000 pieces of new equipment that they have got. The 1999 Airborne Battalion today, if it was rated C-1 in 1999, would be rated…

I want to address my good friend, Mr. Murtha, who pointed out that there was a shortage of Humvees back here, particularly up-armored Humvees. Well, let me show you how many Humvees we had at the end of the Clinton administration…

let me just rejoin to that. We have looked up ``personally'' and ``substantially.'' That could involve standing there in a room and giving advice. So that can be just a person giving advice which could expose them to a $50,000 civil…

Mr. Chairman, I have given a fair amount of consideration to this bill, H.R. 1362. I have a couple of observations to share with you. First, I am very proud of the work that the Armed Services Committee has done with respect to this bill…

Let me just take my time back. I am not making it personal. Mr. Waxman made a statement, I am talking. Mr. Waxman, I will let you respond to this. We are not making it personal. What I am telling you is that there are exigencies in the…

I like this motion to recommit. You know, all of us have shown our support for the troops. Almost every Member in this body has shown support by traveling to the warfighting theaters. This is a chance to show support in another way, to…

I am reminded of our teams that left the Armed Services Committee, went out to the companies that were up-armoring Humvees, started to move that schedule to the left, that means getting those Humvees quicker to the troops; and when they…

Absolutely. The one thing that we have learned is that when people get concussions, there may be a lasting effect on those concussions, and we talked to several concussion specialists who now are focusing on Landstuhl and when the young…

I just got back from Iraq with Congressmen Dan Boren and Ken Calvert and Randy Neugebauer. We were at Landstuhl Hospital in Germany, which is the first place where our wounded soldiers and marines are taken after they have been wounded on…

My last point wasn't that Lebanon is California or New York or Massachusetts. My last point was that the free elections in Iraq inspired the Lebanese to work to eject the Syrian influence, which I think the gentleman would agree was not a…

When we finished the Clinton administration, virtually no one in any of the 10 Army divisions... we have fielded over 40,000 pieces of new equipment that we didn't have 4 years ago that makes our troops yet more efficient.

let me just take 2 minutes to respond to my colleague who has just made a number of points. First, there are a number of live Democrats that I like to refer to. When somebody asks me whether or not Saddam Hussein was indeed a dangerous…

This is, indeed, a sad time in our country. Five years ago we came to this floor united. We joined in sending our troops off in this war against terror. You know, Madam Speaker, for the first number of strikes that were delivered by Muslim…

I made a comment a few minutes ago that I had understood that the Democrat leadership or a member of that leadership had stated that they would use DOD management policies to cut off the sending of either reinforcements or supplies to the…

Then I would say, yes, that is inaccurate. The way the gentleman stated and if he is not going to qualify it, then that is inaccurate, because we have never had body armor until this war.

I am talking about the armor issue. The point that I made is the idea of coming to the floor and implying that somehow there was bad faith in this government for not having the new body armor that our troops presently have to the tune of…

The answer is, not since 1776 until just a few years ago have American troops in Vietnam and Korea and World War II, in any war, had what is known as ballistic body armor. It is a brand-new thing. And we have got yet new systems that we…

That is inaccurate if you refer to the historic amount of body armor that our troops have had.

Mr. Speaker, it is more than 5 years that we are into the global war on terror. Since the horrific attacks to our country on September 11, we are fighting a faceless enemy, an unbelievably ruthless enemy, an enemy who is undeterred in…