Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I want to thank the distinguished chair of the House Armed Services Committee for all of his hard work in putting together, as he was just closing, what I think is a bill that is one of the best--a lot of hard work that he has done. I thank the ranking member also. Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak in favor of passing this measure here before us today. Every year for the past six decades, Congress has passed a Defense authorization bill. This is an important bipartisan tradition, and I commend, as I said, Chairman Smith for his admirable work carrying out this legacy. Unfortunately, Congress has been asleep at the wheel when it comes to our State Department. We have not passed a comprehensive State Department authorization in nearly two decades. Congress has been attuned to defense for decades, but we have consistently left diplomacy out to dry. I am glad that tonight we will be ending this trend by passing out both a Defense authorization bill and a bipartisan State authorization bill contained therein. We need a State Department for the century ahead, not decades past, and my State authorization bill will now put us on that track. Now, no bill is perfect. Unfortunately, I am disappointed that there are some provisions that were not included in this NDAA.…”