Political Quotes

“Mr. President, we have been here before. The same language that is in the base bill right now was in a year ago. On the floor last year, we passed the Inhofe-Mikulski amendment, requiring a Secretary of Defense report on commissary benefits. It passed by unanimous consent with 25 bipartisan sponsors and cosponsors, and it was supported by 41 outside organizations and by the administration. It required a study on the impact of privatization of commissaries on military families before a pilot program on privatizing could be implemented that was to look at modifications to the commissary system. I am sending the language now, which I will get to in a minute. It required a Comptroller General assessment of the plan no later than 120 days after submittal of the report. Here is the situation. The House passed the fiscal year 2017 NDAA, and it doesn't include privatization language. The Senate version has the same language as last year, which would authorize a pilot program to privatize five commissaries on five major military bases. But only yesterday, we received the report from the Secretary of Defense. We have not yet received the Comptroller General's review. Congress asked for this study because of concerns about the impact that privatization could have on our servicemembers and the commissary benefit. It seems as if we are taking away benefits. We are working these guys and gals harder than we ever have before, and this is one very significant benefit that is there.…”