On the recordJune 10, 2015
I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy. Mr. Chairman, this is where reality comes into play. We talked about this earlier. Having a fund that is set up does not evade the responsibility of providing the long-term funding. All of these things in the Department of Defense are priorities, and our friends on the Appropriations Committee have the difficult job of trying to balance these priorities and have the big picture available to them. I think they have done exactly the right thing. I think this needs to be subsumed within the overall budget. There is no magic money. Having something that subverts the hard work that we ask the Appropriations Committee to do, I think, is the wrong thing to do. It is not easy to stand up and make this argument, but I appreciate what they have done. They did it last year, and it was appropriate. They have done it this year, and it is appropriate. We have to be able to deal with this in a comprehensive way and not use sleight of hand. I appreciate what the chair and ranking member have done.
