Political Quotes

“when the Senate took up the fiscal year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, I opposed it. I did not believe that the Senate had fully debated some of the most consequential provisions of the bill. But a majority of the Senate allowed that bill to move forward, and now we have a compromise before us that is a step even further backward. The biggest but by no means only problem with this bill is, of course, the overseas contingency operations account, which has been turned into an escape hatch for defense spending over Budget Control Act caps. Those caps imposed by the Budget Control Act--across defense and nondefense spending--were intended to force Congress to the table to realistically address fiscal concerns. Today, those caps are hurting defense spending, though not nearly as much as they are devastating domestic spending. Other problematic sections are related to Bush-era detainees kept at Guantanamo Bay. The new Guantanamo restrictions contained in this conference report are a needless barrier to efforts to finally shutter that detention facility. The bill would continue the unnecessary ban on constructing facilities within the United States to house Guantanamo detainees and the counterproductive prohibition on transferring detainees to the United States for detention or trial. Even more troubling, this year's NDAA would undo the important step taken by Congress in 2013 to streamline procedures for transferring detainees to foreign countries.…”