Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I would like to thank Chairman McKeon, Ranking Member Smith, Chairman Thornberry, and the members of the committee, as well as the staff, for their efforts in crafting this year's bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act, which affirms our commitment to the dedicated men and women of our military, the infrastructure that enables their efforts, and the research and development required to maintain our technological edge. I am particularly pleased that H.R. 4310 includes provisions I advocated to prevent the proposed cut in the production of the peerless Virginia-class submarines. These electric boats--which are critical to our national security and built in my district through Quonset/ Davisville by the hardworking men and women that work there--are being built ahead of schedule and under budget. This bill preserves the two- boat-per-year model that has enabled such great efficiencies. I would also like to note the inclusion of my amendment to accelerate the deployment of the most promising directed-energy initiatives. Just recently, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments issued a report that clearly showed that many directed energy technologies have matured to the point that ``cultural factors and the lack of resources, not technological maturity'' are the most significant barriers to operational deployment.…”