Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise to join my colleague Senator Inhofe to discuss the fiscal year 2020 national defense authorization bill. I want to begin by thanking Senator Inhofe for his leadership and bipartisanship throughout the drafting of this bill. Like you, Senator, I was living through the draft period, but when you join the Army at 17, you don't worry about the draft at 18, but we share that in common also. The Armed Services Committee, as the chairman indicated, held a series of very thoughtful hearings that greatly informed the shaping of this bill. During last month's markup of the bill, we had a day of good discussion and debate, and the bill was voted out of the committee by a strong bipartisan vote of 25 to 2. I hope we can now have an equally productive consideration of this bill on the floor. I know Senator Inhofe and I are interested in having votes on amendments, including as many cleared amendments as possible. I believe this bill contains many provisions that will benefit the Department and our servicemembers. There are a few areas I want to highlight, and then I look forward to turning to the consideration of amendments. Several months ago--again, as the chairman indicated--this committee became acutely aware of a crisis in quality and safety of privatized military housing.…”