Political Quotes

“My bipartisan amendment would prevent funding from this bill to be used to require the Defense Department to create what is called an unfunded priorities list. This list that DOD is required to send to Congress is simply a wish list of things that individual commanders and generals would like to fund. It has not gone through the level of prioritization and vetting that all of the other things that come in the budget do. In preparing the White House budget request, the Commander in Chief, in consultation with top military brass, determines what is necessary to defend the country based on a holistic analysis of our national security needs. By definition, anything that is in an unfunded priorities list has already been determined to be extraneous by the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This practice, that wasn't even mandatory until the passage of the FY17 NDAA, does not serve the national security interests of the United States or the interests of our taxpayers. These wish lists are packed with billions of dollars of excessive line items, this year totaling more than $27.5 billion on top of the $850 billion requested by the White House and a 50 percent increase from last year.…”