Pete Sessions: “I say to Senator Thune, I agree, and will recall for our colleagues that--I believe it was postelection-- General…”

“I say to Senator Thune, I agree, and will recall for our colleagues that--I believe it was postelection-- General Schoomaker, the Chief of Staff of the Army, pleaded with us not to allow what happened last year to happen this year. He was referring to delaying passing the supplemental because it causes all kinds of problems. A few weeks ago, he testified again, and he was passionate about this. It is his soldiers, predominantly, Army soldiers in Iraq. He pleaded with us not to delay this supplemental. He said you have to take money from all kinds of accounts, and time and effort the leadership in the Department of Defense needs to be spending helping the soldiers being successful has to be redirected to bringing money together in ways that are not easy to fund the effort. He described it as trying to walk through a marsh waste deep in water--those were his words--in the muck. We are creating a political muck that makes it very difficult and adds additional burdens to our Defense Department when they have so many important things to do. We should not do that.”