Political Quotes

“I rise to offer the special incentive pay amendment to S. 4. I am pleased to be joined in offering this legislation by our colleague from Massachusetts, Senator Kennedy, Senator Cleland from Georgia, Senator Kerrey from Nebraska, and Senator Bingaman from New Mexico. Yesterday, Mr. President, a number of our colleagues, among them Senator Allard, described the acute challenges that are faced by the Navy as it struggles to retain sufficient numbers of critical personnel like Navy SEALS, surface warfare officers, nuclear-qualified officers, and career enlisted fliers. While S. 4, with its significant pay raises, improved retirement and enhanced GI bill benefits is an important step in the right direction, we still have big problems in these smaller categories of military service where we have been only marginally successful in our retention efforts. This amendment begins to address the downward retention trends the Navy is experiencing in these areas by aligning pay increases with problem specialties. S. 4's compensation approach begins to address the services' broad recruiting and retention concerns, but it won't assure that the undermanned, highly skilled warfare specialists that Senator Allard described so eloquently yesterday will get well any time soon. Special incentive pay and bonuses have been the shaping tools of choice to fill the breach.”