Political Quotes

“in these times of extreme pressure on our national security team, we want to be assured that America is properly prepared. This defense authorization bill has much that I find commendable. It provides funding for providing the essential defense requirements that will assure that the United States continues to have the most powerful armed forces anywhere in the world, far and away superior to the next seven countries combined. There are many improvements that are made to quality of life for our fighting men and women including increased resources for their pay and for their housing which are critical and which I strongly support. It also recognizes work that I've been championing to have the military clean up after itself and deal with unexploded ordnance and other military pollution. Having an inventory of these contaminated sites is an important step forward and I appreciate the work that Committee leadership and staff have done in that regard. I reluctantly vote in opposition to this defense authorization because of the continued clear misallocation of resources it includes for national missile defense. In fact, I have grave reservations about several of our patterns in military technology and hardware. For example, we are still developing three new tactical aircraft systems simultaneously.”