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Floor Speech

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Ms. JACOBS of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Lee for offering this incredibly important amendment.

It is simply wild that at the same time that our Republican colleagues are complaining about runaway inflation, we would increase Federal spending on things the Pentagon itself has said it doesn't need.

The initial defense budget request was already more than $750 billion. With this plus-up, it will be over $800 billion. That is $800 billion on outdated and expensive legacy platforms, while we are still failing to meet the needs of our servicemembers and their families.

San Diego, the community I am proud to represent, is home to the largest concentration of military personnel in the country. Yet, even after spending hundreds of billions of dollars on defense in recent years, we have more than 39,000 members of military families who visit the San Diego food bank every month.

Even after spending over $800 billion, there will still be thousands of military families on waitlists for childcare in San Diego. So I reject that we need to continue to invest more than even the Pentagon is asking for on outdated systems and things we don't need.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the Lee-Pocan amendment.

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