Political Quotes

“This is part of a troubling battle that we have frequently on the Armed Services Committee. As the military, whether it is the Air Force or some other branch, is trying to move forward, they discontinue different programs. There are always people who like those programs, and we step in and block it and make it difficult for the military to make the decisions they need to make. At this particular moment in history, this is enormously important, because innovation, new weapons technology, is absolutely crucial. Our information systems, just to give one example, are not where they need to be in order to manage all of the information that is now flowing, make sure that it is protected, and it gets to who needs to get it in real time. We need to upgrade all of those systems. We need to improve our unmanned systems, drones, develop counter-drone technology, missiles, and counter-missile technology. All of that is dependent upon new, innovative technologies that we need to adopt and implement. That costs money if we can't discontinue previous programs. We have held onto many, many programs way past the point at which they are actually useful, because it impacted somebody's district somewhere. That is always going to be the case. I am basically opposed to us stepping in and blocking these things and tying the hands of the military to upgrade and innovate in the way that they need. I am in opposition to this. {time} 1930 Mr.…”