Political Quotes

“today I am proud to introduce the National Guard Empowerment and State-National Defense Integration Act of 2011 along with my National Guard Caucus Co-Chair, Senator Lindsey Graham. Our bill builds upon earlier reforms proposed and enacted through the work of the Guard Caucus to give the Guard and Reserve a seat at the Pentagon's budget and policymaking tables and to update jurisdictional and operational lines of authority in Guard matters, recognizing that the Guard has evolved to become a front-line, 21st Century force that is still trapped in a 20th Century Pentagon bureaucracy. This bill represents a bipartisan effort to do the right thing by the men and women of our National Guard, and Senator Graham and I hope that it will receive speedy consideration and passage. Ten years ago, the National Guard of the United States was very different than the Guard protecting our country today. A young private joining the National Guard on September 10, 2001, was joining a force designed to participate in an all-out, no-holds-barred war with the Soviet Union, even though the Soviet Union had ceased to exist a decade before. When that private showed up for drill, he or she found facilities in disrepair, a Guard demoralized by inattention from Pentagon leaders, and equipment that seemed to predate the Cold War. Of course, the life of that private, and of our entire nation, would change dramatically in the days to come. September 11, 2001, woke us up to new realities.…”