Political Quotes

“Thank you for yielding, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of the fiscal 2012 Defense Appropriations Act and urge all Members to extend their support as well. This is a fine bill that the committee worked on in an open fashion, and it includes input from both sides of the aisle. Thanks to Chairman Young and Ranking Member Dicks, it is a strong, bipartisan bill that will do much good for the defense of our country. Mr. Chairman, we will have many spirited debates on amendments during the course of the consideration of this legislation, and that is a good thing. But, rest assured, at the end of the day this legislation is and will remain a very good product. The spending levels in the bill do not exceed the 302(b) allocations adopted by the Appropriations Committee, which are within the overall spending level approved by the House budget resolution. The bill itself includes $530 billion for the normal operations of the Department and $118.7 billion for the conduct of the global war on terror. It includes a 1.6 percent pay raise for the troops. It has $453 million for the procurement of additional updated Abrams tanks, and it has $2.7 billion for the continued development of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a weapons system that is critical to maintaining air superiority for the United States Air Force.…”