Rodney Frelinghuysen: “I want to thank our colleague for raising this issue. May I say that I associate my comments with the ranking member as…”

“I want to thank our colleague for raising this issue. May I say that I associate my comments with the ranking member as well. Mr. Putin uses Russia's vast energy reserves as a political tool--we know that--to support his aspirations in Eastern Europe. This raises, as Mr. Visclosky says, serious concerns and reminds us how important it is to ensure that our military is not solely dependent on Russian energy. I do have some general concerns regarding the unintended consequences, which Mr. Visclosky relates, borne out of an amendment which prohibits the use of any or all foreign energy sources on overseas military bases, specifically as it relates to the European Reassurance Initiative, which is included in our bill, or an amendment which is drafted specifically to prohibit funds from being used to procure Russian energy anywhere in the world. I look forward to working with Mr. Barletta and Mr. Visclosky and our entire committee to ensure that our military bases in Europe can continue to rely on their present-day sources of energy.”