Political Quotes

“the amendment that I have filed at the desk is number 4363. It is designed to bring more discipline to the manner in which we authorize and appropriate military programs. Each year we receive from the administration a request for authorization of defense programs for the upcoming fiscal year. That request is the product of a lengthy and thorough process at the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, the Office of Management and Budget, the White House, and many other Federal agencies, to forge the best military force possible in the face of some rather severe fiscal constraints. The process of building DOD's budget is an enormously complicated process. It is unique in scope among Government departments. It involves at least 2 years of preparation explicitly for one fiscal year's budget submission. It involves hundreds of thousands of manhours by experts throughout the defense community. It involves careful analysis, computer modeling, war-gaming, tradeoffs, and compromise. It is not a process that we in the Congress should take lightly. We have extraordinary expertise here in the Senate among both Members and staff, but I believe we would be naive to ignore the complexity and delicate nature of maintaining a defense program that best serves the national interests.”