On the recordMay 14, 2015
I want to thank the Rules Committee for allowing Mr. Brooks' amendment to be in order. I want to also address these concerns about allowing people to join the military. I fought with my own leadership against a bill that would allow sequester, allow the gutting of our Defense Department. I said it was a mistake. I was told it would never happen. Well, it did. If both sides of the aisle want to find cuts in other programs so we can rebuild our military and let anybody that wants to join the military that is qualified, I am for it, but right now, we are gutting our military. We are telling people who have put their lives in harm's way for us that they are going to have to leave. This language basically can be taken up as judicial notice by the appellate courts to tell Judge Hanen in south Texas Federal court: You were wrong. We are lifting the injunction, the very injunction that our Republican leader said we were relying on in breaking our promise. We need this language removed, and then let's work on building the military back up. Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I would just say to the gentleman that we are not cutting the military. My friends created a slush fund so they can get around sequestration, with regard to the Pentagon. I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
