Political Quotes

“over the past year, our Navy has had four serious mishaps at sea, including fatal collisions involving the USS Fitzgerald on one occasion and the USS John S. McCain on another. In the McCain and Fitzgerald accidents, 17 of our sailors were killed. In response to these serious incidents, the Chief of Naval Operations, ADM John Richardson, directed the comprehensive review take place. Today, the Senate Armed Services Committee was briefed on the results of this comprehensive review. The results will be made public either tomorrow or the next day, and Americans will be able to see the serious situation we are in. There are various reasons for these collisions and these fatalities, including, regrettably, human error and unfortunate circumstances, but, also, the review makes it clear that we are not doing right by our sailors, we are not doing right by the Navy, and we are not doing right by the taxpayers, in terms of making sure these brave men and women have what they need. We need to work quickly with the Navy here in Congress to implement the recommendations that will be coming forward later this week. We need to enhance training and readiness, and we need to recognize--and I think the majority of this Senate does recognize--that the size of the fleet has contributed to the problems. Simply put, we need to acknowledge that the Navy has a supply-and- demand problem. We have a demand for more naval action than the supply of our ships can produce.…”