Political Quotes

“Mr. President, several of the amendments that we will vote on propose a full-year continuing resolution that would lock in dangerously inadequate funding levels for our national defense and lead to cuts in other vital programs serving our veterans, farmers, low- income families, and older Americans. In a briefing last month, the Commander of U.S. Central Command told me that this is the most dangerous security situation in 50 years. The idea that we would consider hamstringing our military under a yearlong continuing resolution at such a time is unconscionable. The Department of Defense has never operated under a yearlong CR. It would reduce defense spending by $27 billion relative to the level called for under the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Further, there would be problems with the misalignment of funds that in many cases would prevent critical funding from being executed. For example, 30 percent of the Navy's shipbuilding request could not be spent because the funding would be misaligned. According to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, under a yearlong CR, ``thousands of [defense] programs will be impacted with the most devastating impacts to our national defense being to personnel, nuclear triad modernization, shipbuilding and maintenance, munitions production and replenishments, and U.S.…”