Political Quotes

“during this past week, I and my colleagues have been working in committee on the defense authorization bill for the upcoming fiscal year. We have debated a host of issues of significant import to the national security of this great nation, among them the future of the BRAC process. Mr. President, a decade ago, I worked with my good friend from Georgia, Senator Sam Nunn, to formulate legislation that would guide this nation through the base closure process. We understood then that this would be a difficult and, for many communities across this country, a painful process. In this decade, each of us in this chamber has come to know how communities in our states had come to rely on the military as the mainstay of their economic livelihood. For many communities, a base closure would impart significant economic impact. In some communities a positive result, in others a negative impact. No two communities are the same. The challenge to these communities after a base closure was then to reorient their goals and to plan for continued growth and well-being, or plain survival.”