Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, for more than a decade, we have overused and underinvested in the United States military. This bill marks a welcomed change of direction and a recapitalization of the American military. I could go through a lot of the weapons systems and missions and programs. I am fortunate enough to represent a district in which all four services are active, both at Fort Sill, where we have Marine artillery and Army artillery and air defense artillery, and Tinker Air Force Base, where we have the Navy E-6 wing as well as the largest air depot in the world. This bill will make a difference for all of those installations. Much more importantly, what the American people need to understand is, at the end of this process, we will have a larger Army, a larger Navy, a larger Air Force, and a larger Marine Corps. They will be better trained, better equipped, and better able to serve us and, thank goodness, better compensated as well. Mr. Chair, I want to thank, particularly, Chairwoman Granger and Ranking Member Visclosky. I wish people could have watched this process. I have served under three very capable chairmen on this subcommittee. To watch them work back and forth in such a bipartisan, pragmatic, and thorough way and to interact with professionals in our military and to give every member of that subcommittee an opportunity to participate in a meaningful way was a legislative marvel and probably a minor miracle in the way things go.…”