Political Quotes

“I represent the largest populated Army installation in America, cochair the House Army Caucus, and in my opinion the Army does not need this job. The Army does not want this job, the Army cannot afford this job, and the Army should not have this job. To give the military, the military, a major role in American domestic affairs, is a major change in long-standing national policy. To pass it under any circumstances, I think is wrong. To pass it without a hearing by the National Security Committee is absolutely irresponsible. Mr. Speaker, there are two more serious problems caused by this amendment. First, it undermines our national security. The job of the U.S. Army is to train soldiers to fight battles and win wars. In the last several years, we have downsized the active duty Army from 18 divisions to 10 divisions. We could not even fight Desert Storm the same way today as we did just a few years ago. Yet to take 10,000 Army soldiers out of training, out of combat training, and put them on the borders, along brush country in Texas and Arizona and California, is absolutely the same as downsizing the Army by 10,000 soldiers. Some may want to do that in this Chamber; I certainly do not. The second problem is this: The average Army soldier spends 138 days away from his or her family. I met a young soldier in my district recently who missed the birth of his first two children because of deployments.”