Political Quotes

“This is a follow-up amendment to an amendment that I had offered and we had a chance to debate, and once again I thank the chairman for the opportunity yesterday to discuss the issue before the amendment was ruled out of order. As you recall, very briefly, $5.6 billion this year has been moved out of the base defense budget and into the war budget. It violates a policy that we have tried to follow in this House since 9/11, and actually violates a policy that the bill, itself, says we should not violate going forward, beginning in 2014. {time} 1700 I simply tried to draw attention to that in yesterday's amendment which was ruled out of order. This amendment deals with the exact same thing, and it simply takes that $5.6 billion out of the budget and puts it right back in, which sounds like a strange thing to do, but it's the only way within the rules to draw attention to the fact that this $5.6 billion is in the war budget when it actually should be in the base defense budget. This is not a spending amendment; this is a good-governance amendment. This is not a spending amendment; it is an accountability amendment. It is a bipartisan amendment. Mr. Jordan from Ohio and Mr. Welch from Vermont are amongst those joining me in sponsoring this particular amendment. Again, this is a good-government amendment, and I would think that it would have bipartisan support. I ask for its support. With that, I yield back the balance of my time. The Acting CHAIR.…”