Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise to discuss the conference report of the fiscal year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, which we will be voting on in the next hour. This conference report is the product of months of negotiation and compromise between the House and the Senate. I want to commend Chairman McCain, Chairman Thornberry, and Ranking Member Smith for a thoughtful, inclusive and cordial process. There are many provisions in this bill that provide the support we owe to our servicemembers and their families--the funding, authorities, and equipment necessary for our troops to succeed in combat; and significant and critical reforms to the military retirement, compensation, and acquisition systems--many of which I will talk about in further debate on this bill in the days and hours ahead. However, I regret that I am unable to support this conference report because it shifts $38 billion requested by the President for enduring or base military requirements--the base budget, if you will--to the overseas contingency operations, or OCO, account, essentially, skirting the law known as the Budget Control Act, or BCA. Again, this is a maneuver to get around a statute that was signed by the President, voted for by Congress, and which has imposed budget caps on every department. Central to that agreement was the significant consensus that domestic and defense discretionary spending would be capped.…”