Political Quotes

“Thank you, Mr. Rokita. With that, Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about an issue that maybe is unknown to many Members and many citizens but should be known, which is the reduction of forces--the reduction in the capability of our military services across all branches, across the whole spectrum-- and how that process is going. It has been my studied opinion at this point that the process is what we should discuss at this time--a process that has lacked transparency, a process that has lacked deliberation. Now, while it is this Member's belief that the chiefs at the DOD are under significant pressure from an administration to defend this Nation, they are also under significant pressure to make cuts, not only to make those cuts, but to make those cuts in a very particular way. That is part of the discussion today--the cuts to the reserve forces. {time} 1230 Before I recognize some of my colleagues, I just want to provide from the Joint Chiefs the definition of the operational reserve, which is your Guard and Reserve: As such, the services organize, resource, equip, train, and utilize their Guard and Reserve components to support mission requirements---- This is important: --to the same standards as their Active components. To the same standards, which is interesting to me because some of the recent reports and quotes that I have heard are things like it is structured to be complementary, and capabilities in its three components are not interchangeable.…”