Pete Domenici: “Understand, we will each speak our piece here. It is not a pleasure to come and oppose my colleague. Nonetheless, I must…”

“Understand, we will each speak our piece here. It is not a pleasure to come and oppose my colleague. Nonetheless, I must say that it seems to me we are always talking in the Senate about trying to do things that are more efficient; trying to do good business, do things in a way they ought to be done. Here we have an opportunity to do that. We have a situation where the new fighter, the world-class F-22--but I am not going to take the Senate's time praising its qualities. We have heard some of that from the distinguished Senator from Georgia. We could spend all afternoon talking about what a fantastic airplane it is. That is not the issue before us. The issue before us is that the Defense Department needs a multiyear procurement authority to acquire these airplanes. The administration requested a multiyear procurement authority for the F-22s. The House Defense Authorization bill granted the request. It makes plain, good business sense that the Senate do the same--that we give the Department what it needs. I also support this because, as indicated by the principal sponsor of the amendment, the distinguished senior Senator from Georgia, this authority will save money. We are going to hear something to the contrary, but the contrary evidence is from reports that do not apply to the 20-per-year acquisition of the F-22. That is what we are trying to do. That is what the Defense Department's final studies were based upon--acquisition of 20 per year, for multiple years.…”