Political Quotes

“I interpret it quite differently. The amendment would prohibit deployment of the ground-based midcourse missile defense system until the Secretary certifies to Congress that the capabilities of the system to perform its national missile defense missions have been demonstrated in operationally realistic testing. We authorized precisely what was to be done last year. We are proceeding on that basis right now. And as I look at this amendment, it would be in effect to reverse what we did last year and start off in an entirely different direction. The test bed capabilities will include space, ground, sea-based sensors, missile defense interceptors, battle management facilities, software, command and control, and communications facilities. To provide additional realism, military operators participate in the tests, and the warfighter is developing a concept of operations. So, basically, what we are doing, if we were to adopt this amendment, is to put a halt on this system. As I said, I rise in strong opposition to the Boxer amendment.”