Charles Skelton: “this is not brain surgery. I for myself will vote against this rule, because to vote otherwise would be to vote against…”

“this is not brain surgery. I for myself will vote against this rule, because to vote otherwise would be to vote against the wonderful troops and their families. I just cannot do that. Let me explain. At the start of fiscal year 2004, the services reported that almost half of the military families' houses were inadequate. We know that they deserve better. The Military Housing Privatization Initiative has an innovative way to address the problem, and when we started the program we made sure it would work. I am speaking for the troops and their families, and everybody ought to listen today as we speak. Nothing is more important than those young people, those young families that we are charged with raising and supporting. It is more than having a bumper sticker on your car that says, ``Support the troops.'' Right here today by voting against this rule that does away with the opportunity for a clear shot at additional housing is most important. So what we have to do is to allow this rule to be put back, that we have the opportunity to submit, as the committees intended to do but could not do for the year 2005, all because of the CBO scoring. We need not go into the complexities of the rule. We need not go into how it was drafted or the point of order that many of us are fearful will be raised. It boils down to whether we support the troops, not just by a bumper sticker, but whether we support them with our votes, because they deserve it so much.”