Hal Rogers: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. Madam Speaker, while there should be no higher priority for Congress than to provide…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Madam Speaker, while there should be no higher priority for Congress than to provide for our common defense, the Democrats have chosen to delay, abuse, and exploit this wartime funding bill--no committee markup, the circumvention of regular order, and the exploitation of our national security needs in order to bail out the special interests. Perhaps most disturbing is the inexplicable 6-month delay that has kept our brave troops waiting far too long. Madam Speaker, the sheer criticality of this war and disaster supplemental should transcend the inconvenience of election year politics. Sadly, that is not the case this year. This episode in political futility has brought us right back to where we should have been all along--funding our critical needs with a clean bill. Because of this calamitous process, we leave a glaring omission--failing to address the President's recently requested enhancements to border security and to fight the murderous drug war. While I intend to support this vital bill, I must emphatically state that abusing the process and failing to deliver on our country's emergency needs is a failure of leadership of the highest order. The American people deserve much better.”