Hearing of the House Armed Services Committee - The Defense Department's Fiscal Year 2009 Budget

Interview

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REP. TODD AKIN (R-MO): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

And I just had two different topics not related at all. One had been touched on and I think several times earlier this afternoon. That was the future combat systems and research. I've been somewhat familiar with that and I used to work for IBM. And there's a tremendous amount of research that we've invested in some -- what looks on the surface like you just don't see where the money is going.

Fortunately, this year a lot of that research is going to be coming together and will actually get pieces of equipment in the hands of the warfighter. So I hope that you'd remain open minded. It is the only major Army modernization that's pulling all of these platforms into one, as opposed to individual we'll fix this tank or this canon or something.

So that was sort of more of an advertisement, I suppose. But I just hope that you will keep an open mind to what the warfighters are saying when we actually spin that equipment into their hands.

The second one is kind of a gotcha -- I don't mean to do this, except that we've had a staff that's been working this for about six months and we feel like Defense has stiff-armed us a little bit. So all you've got to say on this is, I hear what you're saying and I'll help on it.

But let me give you -- there's a piece of law that's written here and it's in Title 10 of the Armed Forces, subtitle A -- and I can give you the rest of the reference. It says this: "Prohibition of sale or rental: The secretary of Defense may not permit the sale or rental of sexually explicit material on property under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense."

Now, the problem is we have this at PX's all over the place. My staff went to Fort Belvoir and has a couple of samples if there's any doubt in anybody's mind. We've got this sexually explicit material literally almost one hand away from the "Veggie Tales" section down there. Now, the law expressly says we're not going to be doing this. And I would hope that you'd say, Secretary, you'd say, well, we'll just -- we'll take a look at that and try and get rid of that.

But I'm going to let you say what you're going to say.

SEC. GATES: Well, it's news to me. We'll take a look at it.

REP. AKIN: If it is -- if you do find that this is being sold, will you bring things into compliance with the law here, sir?

SEC. GATES: I think it's critically important the department obey the law.

REP. AKIN: I'm just reminded of General Washington as he journeyed up to Massachusetts and took command of the troops there just after the Battle of Bunker Hill and he set a high standard for our troops. I hope that we keep that same high standard.

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