John Spratt: “first of all, I commend my good friend, the chairman. We do not agree about everything; nevertheless, I hope that is not…”

“first of all, I commend my good friend, the chairman. We do not agree about everything; nevertheless, I hope that is not a sign of what is about to come. He does a wonderful job of chairing the committee, and he has brought to the floor a good piece of legislation. We thought it could be better. I wish there were more amendments in order, but I do not want to diminish the significance of what is in the bill. Mr. Chairman, with troops in the field being bombed and shot at, we cannot be stinting about what we provide our troops. We have got to give them the resources they need to do the tough tasks that they have taken on. But with the defense bill before us running at a level of $422 billion, that is an increase of $125 billion in 3 years, and with the costs of our operations in Iraq alone approaching $200 billion by the end of next year, military and economic reconstruction, Congress also cannot relax its oversight responsibilities and we should not rubber-stamp what the administration sends us. That is why I thought more of the 100-odd amendments we offered should have been made in order. We could have a good, full debate on the House floor about priorities.”