Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, in talking about one of the previous amendments, I pointed out this was part of a bipartisan agreement to increase the top line by $37 billion. Compromise really requires people to set different priorities, come to the table, and find an agreement. Many of us on the committee--on both sides of the aisle--really believe strongly, as does the Navy, that we need a larger, more capable fleet force. We have different priorities and we talk about them a lot. For me, I think we need more Flight III destroyers out there--the Navy agrees with me about that. Mr. Gallagher over here is a big proponent of getting new frigate ships out there, they are faster and have great capability. Mr. Speaker, I know Mr. Wittman works very closely with Mr. Courtney on submarines and many other things. He made a good point. Giving up these capabilities without replacing them with other capabilities is a problem, but I also agree with the chairman that this is not a top priority program for the Navy. I do have concerns that after just a short period of time they are seeking to shutter this program. It shows, to me, a problem with the Navy in some of their new programs. We have seen this with other things, like the DDG-1000, and I think Congress and our committee need to crack down on this and do a better job with oversight over the Navy to make sure these programs are going to pan out to be worthy investments. It is a shame to see these ships retired after so few years.…”