Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the amendment pending before us now is the Portman amendment proposed by the Senator from Ohio. We spoke about it yesterday. First, let me recognize that he is trying to assist the Army in modernizing the Stryker, which is a very critical piece of equipment. But I want to reiterate some of the concerns I have about the amendment. I know Senator Portman will be here shortly to make a final comment on the amendment. The amendment would add $371 million of funding for procurement, research, and development of the lethality upgrade to the Stryker program. I do not have to tell anyone around here that we are in a very tough budget situation. We have to look very closely at every request. The traditional way it is done is that there will be in the President's budget the request by the service department, including the Department of Army, and then the Army will submit an unfunded requirements list-- those priority elements that have not made the cut, if you will, in the President's budget. That was done in March. I understand that this whole requirement for the Stryker lethality upgrade came in in April. There is an issue of unfortunate timing. But, nevertheless, because we did not have the opportunity to look at this as part of the overall unfunded requirements list--nor the Army, for that matter--we really do not have a sense of the priority. Is this the most important program that we can invest $371 million in at this moment for the benefit of the Army?…”