Political Quotes

“I thank the distinguished chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee for bringing this bill to the floor. The Bridenstine-Rogers-Turner-Poe amendment is not a reflection of concern with what is a good bill under the circumstances. The Bridenstine-Rogers-Turner-Poe amendment would appropriate $25 million to fund military responses to Russia's continuing violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the INF Treaty. This is the exact same amount that the House Armed Services Committee, the HASC, authorized recently in a bipartisan and noncontroversial provision in H.R. 1735, which passed the House Armed Services Committee on a 60-2 vote. Senior DOD officials, from the Secretary of Defense to lesser Senate- confirmed officials, have testified that the United States is considering a range of military options to respond to Russia's violation of the INF Treaty. DOD defines these as countervailing and counterforce options. What do these include? Number one, extending the range of the Army's current Army Tactical Missile System, ATacMS; land-basing Tomahawk or otherwise modifying similar capabilities; and also other capabilities per classified DOD reporting. The emphasis should be on modifying current systems as opposed to developing brand-new capabilities, which would take longer and cost far more.…”