Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. HUNTER. I would like to thank the gentleman from Georgia for
dealing with the entire Congress and coming up with only two budgets,
Price 1 and Price 2.

I think that the chairman has been pulled in just about every
different direction, and I am actually glad that this is coming to
fruition.

I would like to urge my colleagues to vote for Price 2, the defense
budget that Chairman Price is putting out, and vote ``no'' on Price 1.
There is a reason for that: Price 2 is the defense budget.

Our job as Members of Congress is to do a lot of things. We go to
different meetings. We vote on transportation, education, labor issues,
and all kinds of things. But our number one job, our number one job of
the American people is to keep them safe. It is national security. That
is why I am here.

I did three tours. I did two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. I
was in Iraq when we didn't have up-armored Humvees. I was in Iraq when
we didn't have enough scopes for our Marines and security forces. I was
in Afghanistan when we didn't have enough stuff, too. In fact, if you
vote for Price 2, you are still only voting for the ragged edge of what
our Defense Department needs.

We have things going off all over right now. Africa is gone. The
Middle East is gone and going. Eastern Europe is going now because of
the Russians. And Asia and China, China is impinging and coming
eastward towards the United States. Things will never be safer. Things
will never be safer. I think the American people have to realize that,
but they have to contend with it.

The American people need to know that their Navy is patrolling the
ocean, that their Marines and their Army are able to go wherever we ask
them to at a moment's notice and wherever we need them to. The American
people need to know that their Air Force is patrolling the skies.

If we are $20 billion under the ragged edge of what our Defense
Department needs, we are going to have to make sacrifices, and the
American people are not going to be as safe. If we vote and Price 1
wins, we are going to have to leave here and tell the American people
that the American military cannot do what they think it can do. Price 2
will fund the U.S. military where it needs to be to face all these
challenges, still barely--still barely--but the American military will
be able to do it.

Mr. Chairman, I would urge my colleagues to look around the world and
ask themselves one question: What is their job as a U.S. Congress
Member? What is their number one job? There is no social security
without national security. It doesn't matter what our education budget
is if another 9/11 happens.

I wear this 9/11 memorial bracelet on my wrist. That is what made me
join the Marine Corps is when our towers went down. When those towers
fell, we realized what was important, and it was keeping this country
safe. Price 2 will help keep this country safe; Price 1 will make it a
more dangerous place. Again, Mr. Chairman, I would urge my colleagues
to vote ``no'' on Price 1 and vote ``yes'' on Price 2.

Again, I thank the chairman for giving his heart and soul to this and
listening to so many people and trying to come up with something that
this side of the aisle can agree on.

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