Political Quotes

“I commend him for his initiative. He is responding to the needs of the youngest, most junior members of our military forces who need this type of support not only to provide for themselves and their families but to have the mental attitude and the freedom of mind, if you will, to commit themselves to a military career, and to do so from the very beginning of their careers so they start off on the right foot and they develop successfully as professional soldiers, sailors, airmen. All of this is very important. I commend the Senator for his initiative and I hope we can work out the budgetary aspects of this legislation and adopt this amendment. Now let me turn to the bill in general. First, let me commend the chairman and all of my colleagues on the committee for recognizing the seriousness of this problem of retention and recruitment. Indeed, it is a very serious problem. And this is a very serious solution, because it not only provides for resources for recruitment and retention, it does raise very legitimate and very significant budgetary issues which I will address as I discuss the issues overall. Let there be no mistake, there is a retention and recruitment problem within the military services today.”