Political Quotes

“I don't want to belabor this. I think we have covered most of the ground. But I will tell the chairman, the Senator from Alaska, the Army estimates annual investment gaps of $20 million in research, development, test, and evaluation for improved diagnostics and other long-term rehabilitative treatment of traumatic brain injury. I am not making this up from whole cloth. This is the Army's own report. To suggest that we have all the funds we need in this area, to suggest they couldn't figure out what to do with $2 million just isn't backed up by the Army's own official statements about what is needed. They need $20 million. We are offering $2 million. The Senator has argued that we are taking it from some other areas of the bill. Senator Obama and I are offering $1 million each from projects included in the bill, which will slow down their development but will put more money into medical research in traumatic brain injury. And, yes, the University of Chicago is a leader. I don't apologize for that. Wouldn't you want to go to a leading institution with $2 million for 1,700 soldiers facing traumatic brain injury? I don't want to belabor the point other than to say to the Senator, whom I tried in the committee to reason with, that we are prepared to make sacrifices in other areas for what we consider to be a very important medical priority, and he wouldn't allow us to go forward. I tried here on the floor; I am trying now.…”