Political Quotes

“This is a little bit smaller than what the gentleman from Ohio implied. We are stopping the funding of this program. Actually, what we are stopping is the additional $185 million request that NNSA and the President requested in this budget on top of this. The missile would continue to be funded. This is a concern we had in committee. We talked about it and we let it go. But they have not really told us what they are going to do with this additional $185 million. And we have concerns, in addition to the concerns that Mr. Blumenauer raised about the efficacy of the program, about whether or not they are going to be able to execute this $185 million and what their exact timeline is for the program. In fact, the Air Force recently said that they were delaying by a year or two certain steps in the development of this missile while saying they were also going to be able to still meet the ultimate deadline for deployment. But the specific $185 million that is expensed is an amount that was asked for in addition to what had originally been planned for FY20. We do not have an adequate explanation, in my view, and in Mr. Blumenauer's view, from DOD as to why they want that additional $185 million, and that is the purpose of this. It is not studying the entire missile. It is saying, why are you accelerating the program and asking for this additional money? So I support this amendment.”