Richard Gephardt: “Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I rise with great respect of the author of this amendment and the argument he…”

“Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I rise with great respect of the author of this amendment and the argument he has made. On many occasions I have voted with him on issues like this because of my belief that we have had to cut our defense budget because we live in a different world today than we lived in a few years ago. But I also believe that we have to pay attention to our President, who has made a decision and asked us to stand behind that decision. I would read from his letter, which has probably been read from before, where he said on March 9: As I pointed out in my State of the Union Address, I am fully committed to the principle that our military must be the best equipped, best trained, and the best prepared in the world. My fiscal year 1995 defense budget was based on a careful, bottom-up review of our defense requirements. It funds the forces required to meet our national defense strategy. I think we should stick with that judgment.”