Political Quotes

“Mr. President, let me commend and thank the chairman on his leadership. He began this process with great deliberation months ago by bringing together experts on defense organization--experts on military and strategic policy. Through a series of many hearings, we were able to craft significant legislation reforming the operations of the Department of Defense. We will now go to conference and begin to work to improve that legislation. I think improvements can be made with respect to the changes in the context of Goldwater-Nichols reorganization. But I think the chairman's leadership was absolutely essential and incredibly productive in this process. We have had debate on a number of issues on the floor. I think we are now at the point where we should be, not only continuing our efforts to get this bill passed but, once again, underscoring the need to eliminate sequestration, which is looming on the horizon. When we don't have the relief afforded by last year's temporary agreement, we will be dealing with numbers that will not allow our military to perform their basic mission of protecting the United States. Therefore, we have to start working on this issue of sequestration. As I suggested, it applies not only to the Department of Defense but to other agencies of the Federal Government.…”