Political Quotes

“Thank you, Chairman McKeon. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the Johnson amendment. The Johnson amendment strikes from this bill the call for a study. A study is just the obtaining of knowledge. It strikes in this bill a study on what our options need to be in response to an increasing threat from North Korea. This study is necessary for us to understand what our options are. What has changed? Why are we concerned about North Korea? Why do we need to pursue these options? One, we know that they most recently have unveiled a road-mobile missile launcher that Secretary Gates has said is an ICBM that puts the United States mainland directly at risk. Secondly, Secretary Panetta testified in front of our committee that there appears to be a link between China and the road-mobile missile launchers that we've seen and perhaps the missile technology, and we know that North Korea has been pursuing nuclear capabilities. Our normal response to this has been our missile defense capability, where we've tried to bolster our missile-defense capability as North Korea gets increasingly dangerous in its quest to reach the United States with ICBMs and again a nuclear-capable North Korea. But we have grave concerns as to whether or not our missile-defense system would be there in order to be able to protect us. That's why we need to pursue additional options, because we continue to have from the other side of the aisle amendments to reduce our missile defense.…”