Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. While I fully understand and appreciate the gentleman from Colorado's intention, I must strongly disagree with his amendment, specifically its choice of offset. Cutting our future to pay for the present is the very definition of penny-wise and pound-foolish. This amendment would have a severe negative impact on small businesses in the defense industry. The Rapid Innovation Fund was created by the Armed Services Committee. It is a fully competitive program to facilitate the rapid insertion of innovative small business technologies and processes into military systems or programs that meet critical national security needs of the warfighter. Projects are under way now, and just yesterday the pre-notification for the FY 13 process was released. The Rapid Innovation Fund process contributes to the cost savings of the services' training activities. In fact, the Navy added cost reduction as a critical focus area in its FY 12 Rapid Innovation Fund broad agency announcement. Several of the selected RIF projects actually seek to reduce O&M costs, to include the cost of training. According to the Department: RIF has a high return on investment while providing a venue for the timely, innovative solutions from small businesses to our near-term challenges. The ACTING CHAIR. The gentleman from Washington is recognized for 30 seconds.”