Political Quotes

“Well, with respect to the gentleman's comments, I think it is important for us to remember that this equipment is required to be demilitarized. You can't acquire this equipment and have it still maintain a military component. You can't mount machine guns on top of the armored vehicles. I don't know of any police chief or sheriff in the country who has asked for grenade launchers or rocket launchers or explosives, Mr. Chairman. These are reasonable requests. And there is a process in place, a very restrictive process that has been in place prior to the President's executive order. The problem is that the President's executive order has created so much restriction now that it has essentially prevented law enforcement agencies and fire departments and rescue agencies across the country from acquiring the needed equipment that they so need to protect our communities. Mr. Chairman, I think this is a commonsense amendment, again, that really spells out the need for law enforcement to have this equipment. It has been used properly in the past. I myself have used this equipment as the sheriff in King County and as a SWAT team commander. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment. I yield back the balance of my time.”