Kay Bailey Hutchison: “Mr. President, I thank the Senator from California, the chairman of the committee. We certainly have worked together on…”

“Mr. President, I thank the Senator from California, the chairman of the committee. We certainly have worked together on this bill, and Senator Feinstein outlined some of the problems we faced in trying to make up for some of the shortfalls in the budget that we had before, particularly in the environmental cleanup and Guard and Reserve accounts. We have been able to address the major issues for the Department of Defense and also try to stay on the course that we set to improve the quality of life for our military personnel. In 2001, when President Bush took the oath of office, he made a promise to America that we would see a transformation of our military. He wanted to take a 25-year look at what our military needs would be, and he appointed Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who has the most experience of any Secretary of Defense, having been Secretary of Defense before, to do that very job. After 9/11, of course, our priorities immediately changed because we then became immediately involved in a crisis, a war on terrorism.”