Political Quotes

“First of all, I thank the chairman, as well as the staff both on the Republican and the Democratic side and our bipartisan staff in the process to date. As the chairman noted, we produced a very strong bipartisan bill out of committee. It passed by a vote of 57-1 and addressed a number of key concerns to our national security. A lot of work went into that. I always lose track of the exact numbers, but well north of a thousand amendments were considered in committee and in the Rules Committee. The staff sifted through all of those and really helped produce that product. That is not an easy job. We are blessed on both sides of the aisle, both on the Armed Services Committee and on the Rules Committee, with an outstanding staff. I thank them for their work in producing this product. The number one highlight of the product, as the chairman mentioned, is the focus of the quality of life for our servicemembers and their families. We impaneled a group, a task force, to examine quality-of- life issues, led by Don Bacon on the Republican side and Chrissy Houlahan on our side. The task force really did a remarkable job of doing outreach to servicemembers, their families, and veterans and listening to them about what they need and what is most important to ensure that they have everything they need to take care of their families. Certainly, one of the biggest issues was pay for junior enlisted.…”