Pete Domenici: “I commend Senator McCain. I hope what he is suggesting on the floor happens, because the truth is, the U.S. Department…”

“I commend Senator McCain. I hope what he is suggesting on the floor happens, because the truth is, the U.S. Department of Defense is making it very difficult for this to happen. We have worked with them on a number of occasions. You would actually be shocked at some of the correspondence I have received. I want to quote one piece of correspondence. When I said, why don't you tell us how to take care of the food stamp problem, this is what the Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, Edwin Dorn, wrote to me: It would be a mistake to give higher pay to military personnel who had ``a larger family than he or she can afford.'' You can see why that becomes part of the issue, as the Senator from Arizona understands. We have an all-volunteer military that we have asked to stay on for long periods of time. It is not like draftees who spend 2 years in uniform. They have families. They have children. In fact, we have not quite figured it out. Maybe the Senator from Arizona can figure it out in his committee. With this targeting of money today--not a lot of money--we will start solving the problem with those who are not earning much. That is the intent of the proposal of the Senator from Arizona. But essentially it is very difficult for the military to come up with a conclusion that we have to make sure we don't penalize big families in the military.”