Political Quotes

“My amendment would repeal the law that requires the military to provide an unfunded priorities list to Congress along with their budget request each year. This year, the Pentagon requested a whopping $740 billion from Congress, even more than last year, while other agencies like the State Department, the EPA, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development were cut by over 15 percent. The defense budget eats up over half of our Nation's annual discretionary budget, and yet this year Pentagon officials gave Members of Congress a wish list of $18 billion in unfunded priorities on top of its request for $740 billion in spending. Why? Because in 2016, Congress actually passed a law requiring the military services and combatant commands to provide annual wish lists of weapons systems that the Pentagon couldn't fit into its already massive budget. No other Federal agency is required by law to provide such wish lists, and with good reason. The practice is irresponsible, and it undermines the very goals of budgeting. So why does it exist? Because it gives special interests and the defense contractor industry an opportunity to argue for Congress to fund additional, extremely expensive weapons systems not important enough to make it into the Pentagon's budget. Now, this is a bipartisan concern. You might hear that this is something that just Democrats want. No. Lawmakers have long questioned the utility of unfunded priority lists.…”