Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2017

Floor Speech

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Mr. JOLLY. Mr. Chairman, I thank my colleague from Texas, and I thank the chairman for a very good bill that I intend to support. This is a strong bill. The chairman has done great work.

But I do want to rise in support of the effort of my colleague from Texas. We do continue to hear about the excess capacity that each of the services have. And I ask the question: Should we really be paying for cement we don't need when we face end-strength needs, recapitalization needs, and other more important priorities than facilities?

This is a hard issue, and the answer doesn't lie simply in today's amendment. But I think we should continue the conversation. That is why I rise to support my colleague; I rise to support the bill and my chairman as well, and to thank the gentleman for offering the amendment.

Mr. O'ROURKE. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Florida.

I will just ask my colleagues to support a commonsense, bipartisan amendment that moves beyond parochialism, that moves beyond partisanship, that ensures that we have fiscal responsibility and effective and efficient support of our servicemember and our warfighter.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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