Gene Taylor: “I first want to compliment my chairman, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett). I want to wish him a happy 79th…”

“I first want to compliment my chairman, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett). I want to wish him a happy 79th birthday. Many more to come. And I think the gentleman set the proper tone by saying that everything we do is to support the troops. By and large, this is a very good bill. It could have been better if one amendment had stayed in. But by and large this is a very good bill. And I want to compliment the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett) on taking what was dealt in the beginning of the year, a pretty bad hand, just asking for four ships, and through his good work, through our chairman's good work, through our ranking member's good work, we were able to add, as he said, 2 DDG-51s. And as far as the taxpayers are concerned, the last ships you get of any run are not only the best ships of that run, but also the most affordable because all of the learning that has gone into building the previous 50 ships go into these, and so these will be the most affordable, most technologically advanced of the DDG-51s. The first of the LHARs, the replacement for the LHAs, is in this bill. Again, that is very good news for the United States Marine Corps. This is an aviation variant of an existing hull. Again, the savings that we have learned from the first seven hulls will go into this one and make it an outstanding addition to the fleet.…”