Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2010

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Mr. EDWARDS of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I had the humbling privilege of representing Fort Hood, America's largest Army installation, for 14 years, through three combat deployments. It is now next door to my district in central Texas.

Fort Hood has sent more troops to Iraq and Afghanistan than any other military installation in America. And despite that sacrifice, sadly, the soldiers and families at Fort Hood had to face an unbearable and unspeakable tragedy at the hands of a terrorist in our midst who killed 12 Fort Hood Army soldiers and one Army civilian just several months ago.

The soldier processing center through which soldiers go--often the last building they see before they leave Fort Hood, and it's the first building they see when they come home from being a year away from their family serving in Iraq or Afghanistan--is a soldier development servicing center there.

At the request of the Pentagon, I want to thank Chairman Obey for putting our request for $16.5 million into this amendment. First, because that center was old and antiquated, inefficient and too small, but most importantly because the soldiers at Fort Hood who've sacrificed so much for our Nation's defense in Iraq and Afghanistan should not be asked to process through a building where 12 of their fellow soldier comrades in that installation were brutally murdered at the hands of a domestic terrorist.

I thank Chairman Obey for putting this in. It is a meaningful, dignified way to show support for our troops. And I support this amendment and ask my colleagues on a bipartisan basis to support it as well.

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