Bill Lee: “Let me thank the gentleman for yielding me time and for his tremendous leadership as our ranking member on the Defense…”

“Let me thank the gentleman for yielding me time and for his tremendous leadership as our ranking member on the Defense Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition once again to this bill. I think the House has taken it up now for a third time this year. Let me just start by saying I grew up in a military family. I am a military brat. My dad fought in World War II and in the Korean War. He was stationed, among his posts, at Fort Bliss, Texas. And I want to say that supporting our troops, making sure that they have everything they need, is extremely important. And opposing this budget, for me, of course, does not reflect my support for our troops. But I just have to tell you, this bill appropriates the $664 billion in defense spending for this already out-of-control Pentagon budget. It also includes more than $75 billion for wars that Congress has never debated or voted on. And what is worse, this bill includes $1.2 billion in overseas contingency operations to increase troop levels in Afghanistan by 3,500 troops. This is really outrageous, and this fund should really be eliminated. Now, the Pentagon has failed to achieve the requirement to audit itself by 2017, and we know that billions of dollars have been found in waste, fraud, and abuse. That is unacceptable.…”