Political Quotes

“I thank the ranking member for his graciousness. And I want to thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the management of this bill. I appreciate the bipartisan leadership the committee has provided on these issues. Let me also thank you for working with the House Foreign Affairs Committee and myself on this amendment, which requires the Secretary of Defense to establish monitoring and evaluation metrics for its activities in the Horn of Africa, specifically the Combined Joint Task Force. Among other things, this task force partners with the Navy and CENTCOM forces to conduct maritime security operations to protect shipping routes in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia, the Gulf of Oman, the Arabian Sea, Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean. The task force currently does not use any form of metric to evaluate the effectiveness of its activities. According to a GAO report, the task force is not currently evaluating whether its activities are, in fact, achieving the desired results. This amendment would make that requirement. I thank the chairman and the ranking member for their support of the amendment and urge its adoption. Announcement by the Acting Chair The Acting CHAIR. The Chair would like to remind those in the Chamber to keep their conversations down to a minimum. Even the Chair had a difficult time hearing the last speaker.”