I do rise to oppose this motion. First, let me thank my colleague, Mr. Skelton, an outstanding gentleman and friend and a guy who cares about our country, and all the folks who have really worked this issue and participated in the hearings…

I think that comment that somehow this is a neat, tidy package and if we just confined ourselves to Afghanistan, somehow we would win the war against terror and we wouldn't have to worry about Iraq is a naive position. The facts are that…

Do we have the right to close? The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman is correct.

I thank the gentleman. And, you know, that takes me to another point, which is the Iraqi Army. It has been said many times, and probably will be said again in this debate, that we should have kept the Iraqi Army intact. Now, the road that…

the reenlistment rate for the soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division, the 4th Infantry Division, the 1st Marine Division, and the 10th Mountain Division exceeds 130 percent in this last quarter. And a lot of that is the result of the great…

We have reserved the balance of our time. I think we have got a transition here, Mr. Speaker, with the next committee coming up.

I yield myself 1 minute to clear up a point. There are 340,000 sets of advanced body armor produced and fielded. That is more than two sets for every single person serving in uniform in Iraq. I have made this statement for the last year…

I thank Mr. Issa for his contribution here, because Billy Casper has not only touched the hearts or touch the minds and memories of lots of sports writers and people who read those sports pages when he was amassing those 51 professional…

I wanted to rise today to talk about an American hero, a hero from San Diego, California, Billy Casper, one of the great athletes to ever stride the greens and fairways of America's golf courses and compete in national and international…

let me say to my good friend who just spoke and talked about the need to shore up energy supplies for our country, I agree with him totally. And I agree with the idea that we should not have to rely on that lifeline of petroleum coming out…

Mr. Baca's amendment requires the Department of Defense to study the scope of perchlorate contamination at formerly utilized defense sites. Mr. Castle's amendment implements GAO's recommendations to cut down and award an incentive fee…

I thank the gentlemen from Mississippi. I am going to miss Sonny Montgomery, with that great smile that illuminated this House and all of our lives. Ladies and gentlemen, this defense bill passed the committee by a vote of 60-1. It did…

I just wanted to, once again, echo my great respect for my partner on this committee, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton), and just offer that one thing we have done in this package is to take down the cost of pharmaceutical drugs to…

I would say to my good colleague, I have just one additional thing that I would like to mention about a provision in the bill. But outside of that, we are ready to wrap up the general debate. So I have got just maybe a minute or two.

the heart of this bill is the 2.5 million Americans that wear the uniform of the United States, and the subcommittee that oversees personnel issues and sets the pay raises and does personnel policy is headed by the gentleman from New York…

from the mountains of Afghanistan to the desert country of Iraq to the jungles of many hemispheres, Special Operations and Special Forces personnel in the U.S. military are cognizant of an individual in this House who works for them night…

I might add the gentleman who just spoke, the gentleman from Texas, has been to the warfighting theaters more than any other Member of either body in this Congress and we appreciate his great efforts. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the…

we are at a crossroads on a lot of our defense weapons systems. There is no one more capable or better trained to lead in these very important decisions than the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon), who is the chairman of the Tactical…

Absolutely. Foreign governments should not be allowed to underwrite the risk of corporations involved in developing new airframes, especially when it is at the expense of the American worker. I want to assure my friend that the Armed…

I agree that the language contained in the conference report can both be flexible enough to allow our personnel to protect America's security interests and fair enough to protect our personnel without placing themselves in legal jeopardy…

if you are one of the 2.5 million people who wear the uniform of the United States, you can know that you have got some great people working for you on this Armed Services Committee. I want to thank the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Snyder)…

That is correct. As the gentleman knows, I have long supported efforts to protect American businesses and workers from illegal trade practices. Unfortunately, the conferees were unable to come to an agreement that would allow us to include…

I wanted to yield at this time to the gentleman who chairs the Projection Forces Subcommittee, the wonderful gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett), who lives on the Monocacy River and spends so much of his time and has spent a lot of time…

I am going to vote against a precipitous termination of our deployment in Iraq. Mr. McGOVERN. You are going to vote against the Hunter amendment. Thank you for voting against your own amendment.

We have got only one speaker left, so I would ask my colleague from Pennsylvania to close on his side if he could.