Rodney Frelinghuysen: “Thank you for yielding me the time. Madam Chair, I rise in strong support of our Defense appropriations bill. Under…”

“Thank you for yielding me the time. Madam Chair, I rise in strong support of our Defense appropriations bill. Under Chairman Young's leadership and collaboration and strong support from Mr. Visclosky, our committee held a lengthy series of hearings examining varied topics: our operations in Afghanistan, the so-called pivot to the Asia-Pacific, the Army and Air Force's need for modernization, Navy shipbuilding, marine end strength, military health care, acquisition reform, sexual assaults, among other important issues, and, of course, the impact of the sequester, the negative impact. {time} 1445 Most of our hearings related to reducing risk in the defense budget and the new strategic guidance from the Department of Defense-- protecting our gains as well as preparing for current and future threats--China's growing military capability; continued uncertainty in North Korea and that peninsula; the destabilizing civil war in Syria; Iran's race to develop a nuclear weapons capability and their threat to close the Straits of Hormuz, among others. Our goal throughout this bill is to provide the resources to support our warfighters now and in the future, whenever the next crisis arises. Madam Chairman, our subcommittee, like other Appropriations subcommittees, clearly recognizes the Nation's debt and deficit and found areas and programs where reductions are possible without adversely impacting our Armed Forces and our modernization efforts.…”