Rodney Frelinghuysen: “I will be brief. I rise in support of the agreement before us this afternoon. Madam Speaker, as my colleagues are aware…”

“I will be brief. I rise in support of the agreement before us this afternoon. Madam Speaker, as my colleagues are aware, the Department of Defense and the intelligence community have borne the brunt of our efforts to reduce the budget deficit and control our burgeoning national debt. Under the Budget Control Act of 2011, roughly half of all the discretionary spending reductions were taken from programs in the national security area. My colleagues, 2011 was a different time. The security environment has changed significantly. Since that time, threats from terrorist groups and nation-states have risen dramatically. The security spending reductions envisioned 4 years ago seem extremely unwise and dangerous today. In this agreement, the Department of Defense will receive additional resources, badly needed resources: $30 billion this year, and $15 billion next year. But almost more important, this agreement gives the Pentagon and our intelligence community predictability, certainty, the ability to organize and plan its activities for 2 years. It also gives our soldiers and their families a degree of certainty that they will be supported as they do the work of freedom. Senior leaders of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines--and the Department itself--will now be able to plan as to how they will configure, equip, train, sustain, and deploy our forces in the most effective and efficient manner possible.…”