Political Quotes

“in just a few minutes, the Senate will vote on the final passage of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2020. Throughout the last week and a half, we have debated the legislation here on the Senate floor in a fair process. I thank my colleagues who have supported this bill and have helped to make a better bill through the amendment process. While I would have liked to have had more open amendments--and Senator Reed and I both wanted to have more amendments on the floor--we knew that there was a problem and that we could not do that. We are pleased that we will at least be able to clear the 93 amendments that we added on yesterday as part of the bipartisan substitute amendment in the manager's package. These include the annual Intelligence Authorization Act, the Maritime Administration Authorization and Enhancement Act, and the Fentanyl Sanctions Act. Ultimately, the job of the NDAA is to make tough choices about where we want to invest our resources. We put our resources where they matter--in taking care of our people, in implementing the national defense strategy, and in applying recommendations from the NDS Strategy Commission Report. This is something we have used as a blueprint, and it has been very successful in taking us through this process. Everyone agrees there are things that are going to have to happen in order to rebuild our military. That is why our top line is $750 billion.…”