William M. ``Mac'' Thornberry: “The underlying bill, as Chairman Smith pointed out a few moments ago, is consistent with the 2-year budget agreement…”

“The underlying bill, as Chairman Smith pointed out a few moments ago, is consistent with the 2-year budget agreement, which was made last year. It turns out, many of the sponsors of this amendment voted for that 2-year budget agreement. But this year, they only want to cut defense. As my colleagues have pointed out, some accounts are exempt, and that means the real cut is not 10 percent. It is 16 percent. That 16 percent cut would have a severe effect on modernization; on the research we need to do to catch up, in many cases, with Russia and China; and especially on maintenance. This House has been a leader in restoring our readiness and maintaining our planes, ships, and equipment. This takes us back the other way. In other words, this amendment may well cost lives. As several of my colleagues have mentioned, while it exempts some accounts dealing with our people, other accounts are not exempt. So, this amendment results in a $216 million cut to military housing; a $470 million cut to the Department of Defense dependent education program; a $184 million cut to commissaries; $900 million to defense nuclear environmental cleanup, including a $145 million cut to the Hanford site. But underneath it all, there is a fundamental flaw in this amendment. It says that we can cut defense without consequences. It is kind of like we can hide our head under the covers, cut defense, and assume that the threats are just going to go away. But they don't.…”