On the recordMay 25, 2011
Madam Chair, this is a very frustrating debate because nobody's questioning the importance of missile defense. There is $1.1 billion in this bill precisely for this missile defense. The reason that funds have been cut for this program isn't because it's less of a priority; it's because the program wasn't working as it was intended. As I have discussed earlier, this happens frequently in the Defense Department. We don't get a program up to where it's supposed to be. We are appropriating money, authorizing money, in this bill that cannot be spent not because we simply want to cut it because we don't have a priority but because it isn't working at the pace that we expected it to be. We are giving $100 million that isn't needed even to continue the program. We need to be more fiscally responsible with our money. We support this program. We support $1.1 billion. The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
