Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by recognizing Ranking Member McKeon for his leadership and for his thoughtfulness in this whole process of leading the House Armed Services Committee on the minority side. I also want to recognize our outgoing chairman, Ike Skelton. What a tremendous legacy of service to this Nation, of devotion to our men and women in uniform. I know everybody out there that has served this Nation during his time in Congress is better off for his leadership here on the House Armed Services Committee, and I thank him for that. He has been a mentor to many of us on the committee. Every once in a while taking his hand, placing it on your shoulder, giving you a thoughtful word or a little advice or a little input on this whole process that we go through here has really affected many of us on the House Armed Services Committee, and I thank him deeply for that. We have before us the national defense authorization bill, which I'm happy to support but disappointed in the process and how we have gotten here. I'm concerned in that the House put a significant amount of effort into passing a national defense authorization act, with all the members having their input there and with, I think, there being a very thoughtful process. The concern now is that we have a bill before us very different than the one that came before the House previously, one that had been crafted without that transparency, without that input of all the members of the committee.…”