Political Quotes

“tomorrow morning we will consider the Defense appropriations conference report with very little debate. It is an important measure. Earlier I came to the floor to speak about one aspect of the bill which relates to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It is a large bill, about 1,000 pages. It contains many things. I would like to address the other elements that are included in that bill. This conference report provides $453 billion in defense spending, money for body armor, armored vehicles, protective equipment for our troops that they need and haven't always had. The conference reports includes $1 billion for equipment for National Guard and Reserve units. In Illinois, our National Guard units have been forced to leave their equipment behind in Iraq for use by the units that follow. Other States' National Guard and Reserve units have done the same. Leaving their equipment thousands of miles away makes it difficult to train our guardsmen in my State and many others. It also makes it harder for Guard and Reserve units to respond to civilian disasters here at home. We saw that in Hurricane Katrina. I voted for the Leahy amendment, offered by the Senator from Vermont, to increase funding for Guard and Reserve equipment by $1.3 billion. I am pleased that most of this funding is included in this final conference report.…”