Political Quotes

“Today I voted against the Conference Report to Accompany S. 2943, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2017 (Roll No. 600). Though the legislation contains several provisions that I support, and I commend the House and Senate Armed Services Committee for tackling some difficult issues, I am concerned about many components of the bill, including the continued use of a budgetary gimmick to avoid making the tough decisions we need to make about our defense spending. This NDAA includes $67.8 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding, which isn't subject to budget caps, and $8.3 billion of this funding would go to base defense budget operations. Congress and the Administration should not be able to use the account, initially used to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to pad their budgets in an era of fiscal uncertainty. The legislation also keeps intact funding for several unnecessary and outdated weapons programs and includes extraneous funding, unsolicited by the Navy, for an amphibious ship replacement program known as the LX (R). The legislation also maintains prohibitions on closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and on transferring any detainees to the United States. It's past time that we closed this military prison. Finally, it's concerning that the bill includes new language that marks a significant shift in U.S. missile defense policy which dates back to 1999. This adjustment could cement U.S.…”