Janice Schakowsky: “when the House passes the Conference Report on H.R. 4425, the Military Construction Authorization bill, we will also be…”

“when the House passes the Conference Report on H.R. 4425, the Military Construction Authorization bill, we will also be voting on a massive supplemental bill that has been attached. Unfortunately, members have not even been given the courtesy of an opportunity to review the contents of the conference report. So, we can not possibly know in detail what we are considering. However, I do know that the Military Construction bill authorizes billions of dollars' worth of unnecessary, irresponsible, and dangerous equipment and programs. Two provisions included in this measure are particularly troubling to me. The first is $60 billion for construction of national missile defense facilities in Alaska. I believe that the decision to go forward with construction for this plan is misguided, extremely premature, and actually risks the welfare of our nation. We have already spent billions of dollars on development of this system and it still has not been proven to work. I do not believe that it ever will. Leaders in the scientific community and even the Pentagon's own experts have raised serious questions about NMD. Moreover, it is clear to me that moving forward with construction of this system will undermine diplomatic efforts to curb the threat of weapons of mass destruction to our nation. I believe that the United States should be investing in peace with at least as much vigor as we continue to fund our wasteful military agenda.”