Kay Bailey Hutchison: “let me say this is the first time in this entire process that anyone has tried to get a fair solution to this issue. We…”

“let me say this is the first time in this entire process that anyone has tried to get a fair solution to this issue. We were not able to do that last year in the armed services authorization bill, and we certainly do not have a bill that would allow for good public policy before us today. It is not as if the Department of Defense would go without appropriation if there was not an authorization bill because, in fact, many departments of Government go forward if there is no authorization as long as there is an appropriation. So there is no ongoing issue of the Department of Defense not having the ability to do its job and the money being there for them to do it. We are talking about a budget that starts on October 1 of this year, so we have time, and I think we need to take the time. I think we need to solve this problem in the best interests of the people of America, our armed services, our Department of Defense and all of the depots that we would like to protect. I think we have time to do that and do it right. I do not think it is in the best interests of our country to go forward with a bill that has such a flawed policy that will have such far-reaching implications and one in which I am not sure, because of parochial interests, we will be able to amend unless we are able to make an agreement before we take the bill up for consideration.”