Haley Stevens: “I oppose the Bayh-Kennedy amendment on the uparmored humvees. The validated global war on terror requirement for this is…”

“I oppose the Bayh-Kennedy amendment on the uparmored humvees. The validated global war on terror requirement for this is 10,079. I do hope the Senate will listen. This is very serious. We received a letter last week from two senior Army general officers, the Army's G-8 Deputy Chief of Staff for Programs and the Army's G-3 Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans, which states the total requirement for these vehicles is 10,079 and that industry will meet that requirement in less than 2 months with funds previously provided. Keep in mind the pre-emergency throughput of these vehicles was 40 a month. We are now producing at the rate of 550 a month, and we will reach the maximum in June because we paid more to speed up this production. We appropriated funds and reprogrammed to meet the total requirement. We have now met it. As a matter of fact, we produced 266 more vehicles than the Army wanted. This amendment is not about taking care of troops. I spent my career, and the Senator from Hawaii with me, to ensure the service men and women have the equipment they need, the support they need. This is about the production unit of a defense contractor, not about the people who are wearing the uniform in Iraq. This manufacturer is currently producing these at the capacity, as I said, of 550 a month. Every month, 550 new humvees are going into Iraq. We will have more there by June than we need. There is no need for this.…”