Pete Sessions: “I rise today so that this great body may momentarily reflect upon the importance of the bill we are about to vote on…”

“I rise today so that this great body may momentarily reflect upon the importance of the bill we are about to vote on this afternoon. It is a bill whose beginnings extend back to early Spring, a bill that has been through many hurdles since then to include a major compromise impacting competition at depots around the country. I intend to vote yes for this bill and I encourage my fellow Senators to do the same. There have literally been thousands of differences between the House and Senate versions of this bill. However, what is important for Members of this body to understand is that on both sides of the aisle, in both Houses of Congress, we have fundamental support for maintaining the strongest national defense possible for America. This is not an easy task. We share differences in solutions to defense that range from management styles, to leadership, to modernization and procurement, to the vexing uncertainty of the funding levels required to sustain our forces in the field. The conference agreement was unanimously supported by the committee under the able leadership of Chairman Thurmond. On the major issues of Bosnia, the B-2, cooperative threat reduction and other issues, the bill is much closer to the Senate position than the House position. Equally important to me, the bill is consistent with the targets of the bipartisan budget agreement. The depot issue was certainly the most controversial provision in this year's bill.”