Norman D. Dicks: “I think this is a very fine rule that allows the House to work its will on this very important legislation. I think this…”

“I think this is a very fine rule that allows the House to work its will on this very important legislation. I think this is an exceptionally good bill. First of all, I want to compliment the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis), our chairman, and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha), our ranking Democrat, for their excellent leadership on this particular bill. One of the things that I think stands out in my mind about this bill is the fact that we are moving forward the Army's program to transform Army brigades to a new medium configuration that can be deployed within 96 hours anywhere in the world on a C-130 or, better, on a C-17. I am very pleased that the Army has selected Ft. Lewis, Washington, as the place to do this transformation of two of these brigades. I think the Army is correct to try to have a more deployable force. We saw the problems in Kosovo with the Apaches, first of all the inability to deploy them for some period of time, and then the fact that they were not prepared when they got there to be utilized. I think that is a serious problem for the Army that we must confront. I would only say to my friend, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank), that attack submarines, by the way, were just given a scrub by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They think the fact that we only have 50 is a serious mistake. They think we should have about 68.”