Jim Inhofe: “I have an amendment to be considered. I consider it to be perhaps one of the most important amendments. It is referred…”

“I have an amendment to be considered. I consider it to be perhaps one of the most important amendments. It is referred to as the train and equip amendment. What I am not going to do is take a lot of time today talking about it because in the event there is opposition to it, I want an opportunity to respond to that opposition. Primarily, this is what our amendment would do: Under sections 1201 and 1204 of Title XII, it would allow the military to train and equip some of these countries where we see an opportunity to be using their resources and their militia as opposed to sending our troops there. Right now, in order to get it done, the process is one has to go through the State Department and then the Department of Defense. A good example is when the U.S. Government wanted to train and equip some of the Georgia forces for counterterrorism. Seven different authorities for funding and sources had to be stitched together to make this effort. It took 8 months. By the time 8 months goes by, the problem is no longer the same problem it was 8 months before. What we would do is take existing O&M moneys, $750 million, that we would be able to use to train and equip in a streamlined way of doing this. I will share some personal experiences and then I will yield the floor. We have been talking about the five African brigades, that we would be training and equipping various countries in regional areas in Africa to take care of some of the problems.…”