Rodney Frelinghuysen: “I want to thank the gentlewoman for the time and rise in strong support of her bill, the Defense appropriations bill. I…”

“I want to thank the gentlewoman for the time and rise in strong support of her bill, the Defense appropriations bill. I know I join Mrs. Lowey in congratulating Ms. Granger and Mr. Visclosky for their excellent Defense appropriations bill and their joint dedication to a very bipartisan product. They continue, I think, a very proud tradition. Let me also acknowledge and thank the men and women who helped produce the bill who stand or sit behind us and who have been mentioned by both the ranking member and chairman. I want to thank them for making us look good and making sure that we have a very professional product. I do want to take the opportunity to thank the personal staff of the members on the committee as well as Steve Wilson from my office who has worked on my behalf for 15 years on defense issues. The distinguished chair, Ms. Granger, and Mr. Visclosky have outlined the specific recommendations and highlights of their bill. As we are aware, the bill totals $675.6 billion for the Department of Defense. This is consistent, as Ms. Granger has mentioned, with the bicameral, bipartisan budget agreement hammered out last spring. In addition to the increased funding in this bill, the balanced budget agreement also has provided what we call critically important stability and predictability to the Department of Defense, our Armed Forces, and our defense industrial base.…”