Political Quotes

“I want to ask for the chairwoman's assistance on an impending threat to our national security. Roads surrounding military installations play an important role in preserving military readiness. Our Armed Forces need to mobilize quickly, and we need functional roads in order to do that. The same is true for other infrastructure supporting defense communities where our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines live and raise their families. This is a problem all over this country and a severe one, but it is especially acute right outside Joint Base Lewis-McChord in the 10th Congressional District of Washington, which I have the privilege to represent and is the largest force projection base in the Western United States. More than 50,000 people report to work there every day. It is the second most requested location in the Army, second to Hawaii. Still, I am thrilled when they get new things like, recently, the C-17 Weapons Instructor Course and a Security Force Assistance Brigade. What I am not thrilled about is the frustratingly long wait times at the front gate for JBLM or the heavy traffic diverting through neighborhoods to avoid traffic jams. My very first term in Congress, I introduced the COMMUTE Act to help address these issues. I have been working on the problem every year since. This year, both the House and Senate authorizing committees acknowledged this need by creating the Defense Community Infrastructure Program, or DCIP.…”