Haley Stevens: “We funded in this bill what we thought were a number of these upgraded Humvees that could be produced and were the…”

“We funded in this bill what we thought were a number of these upgraded Humvees that could be produced and were the stated demand of the Army at that time. This demand keeps going up as it is realized how much these Humvees need to be modernized. We have changed to deal with the circumstances in Iraq. They are very interesting modifications. We have both been briefed on them. Some of the modifications are still classified. It is our intention to fund it. Coming out of conference, I will do my utmost to fund the number of Humvees that can be upgraded in a reasonable period ahead of time so we can meet this demand so that every group of the military that needs Humvees for their protection will be modernized and upgraded for self-protection. They do have to have some additional items. There are methods some of the terrorists have used to destroy Humvees that can't be defended against. So it is our intention to modernize these Humvees. They were not defective. Some of the methods terrorists use are unique. We need additional protection from above, and from the side, and from the rear, and underneath the Humvees. We cannot turn them completely into shockproof tanks, but we are going to do our best.”