Political Quotes

“I appreciate and share the comments made by the distinguished Senator from North Carolina. I believe it is important. Having come here 15 years ago and having confronted the question of depots and how they operate, I was surprised to learn the intensity of the feelings and the difficulty of the issue. We worked on it for some time, and for the most part, it has been quiet under Senator Levin and Senator Warner. We kind of worked out how this thing should be handled. I thought things were rocking along well and have been very disappointed that the House Members have taken an initiative at a point where we were told it was too late to make any changes in the process. That alters that understanding, and I am not comfortable with it. I feel I have engaged in these issues. We have a depot in my State, and we should have given it better consideration. I do not believe it is correct, the language as it is. I do believe we need to make changes. So it is a concern that the delicate balance created by the current definition of ``core depot-level maintenance'' between government facilities and industry could be altered and at risk. We have all worked on this issue for a number of years. We have a more efficient and productive model today than we had when I first came here because of a lot of hard work and intense effort. So that is a problem for me. Another troubling element of this new definition is the potential treatment of commercial items.…”