John Murtha: “Every one of these earmarks are competitively granted under the regulations of the Defense Department. We depend on them…”

The Iraqi leaders are not stepping up to unit and rebuild the country.

Let me tell you, we have added, we have added all kinds of money for body armor, for paint, for the gentleman from Ohio, predecessors, one of your predecessors was always looking for new ways, new developments. Small business has been the…

This is a very worthwhile project. Let me say to the gentleman, you see the number of hearings we have had, and the number of earmarks. Our staff went over every one of these earmarks very carefully. It's not on our highest priority list…

But I think in light of the recession and the economic difficulties we are facing it is not a good idea to pass legislation driving American industrial production back to the levels of 1920 at a time of potentially an economic depression.