On the recordMay 14, 2015
Mr. Speaker, the Rules Committee just rejected an amendment to the defense bill that I offered to protect our troops on the front line by shifting funds from the A-10, an airplane the Air Force and the Department of Defense don't want, to unfunded priorities for IED protection and other things our front-line infantry troops desperately need. Thousands of young American men and women have been killed by IEDs in the past decade. If the A-10 is so critical, why has neither the Army nor the Marine Corps, which many troops feel provides the best close air support in the world, asked for A-10s themselves? With a limitless budget we would all love to have the A-10 and other weapons. But our troops know that we live in a real world with real tradeoffs. And America expects us to make the politically difficult decisions to protect our shared national security and the lives of young Americans whom we ask to defend it. ____________________
