Joe Cunningham: “the defense bill has been neglected for a long period of time, not necessarily by appropriations or even authorization…”

“the defense bill has been neglected for a long period of time, not necessarily by appropriations or even authorization, but by the utilization of our Armed Forces without replenishing those forces. It has prevented modernization in many areas. I also serve on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; and if we think about the depreciation of our personnel, of our equipment and every rock we turn over, whether it is parts, whether it is training, whether it is ship repair, there is a deficiency. I would like for everyone to think also, because authorization goes to appropriations and under the appropriations cycle we fund the intelligence committees; but every time we had one of those 124 deployments, our intelligence agencies were forced to withdraw from their budget as well and not modernize both in the HUMINT, ELINT and areas in which they need to protect us from terrorism as well as national security from other sources. It is important now that the Nation realize just how far deficient that our Armed Forces are and our intelligence service; and if we are going to do an adequate job of protecting this country, then this must be just a start.”