Political Quotes

“The key problem that I have with this amendment, Mr. Chairman, is that it does not get at the heart of what this debate is all about, and that is asking the Secretary to report back to us within 60 days for as soon as practicable deployment of the beginning of a national ballistic missile system. Now we have it on the Record, the tiger team that did the research for Secretary Perry looked at three options and, in fact, reported to the Secretary last week that they can begin to deploy a limited national defense system for approximately $5 billion over 5 years. It is not 10, it is not 20, it is not 25; $5 billion. Furthermore, they have stated that technology will give us a 90-percent effective rate for the kinds of targets that it would focus on, namely the SS-25 and a conglomeration of three missiles with three warheads. But we do not want to specifically limit what the Secretary can go back and recommend to us, which is one of the further reasons why I have to object to this.”