Duncan Hunter

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the gentleman who just spoke. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Everett), the chairman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee. (Mr. EVERETT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HUNTER. I yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh), who does such an able job of presiding over the Subcommittee on Military Personnel and who takes care of all of our folks in uniform, men and women, active, Guard, and Reserve.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities, and oversees those wonderful people in our Special Operations Command. (Mr. SAXTON asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon), who is the vice chairman of the full committee and the chairman of the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, and who has done a great job in putting his package together in terms of modernizing our forces. (Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield an additional 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh).

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Hefley), who chairs the Subcommittee on Readiness and does a wonderful job making sure our men and women have the facilities that they need.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Beauprez), who has exhibited enormous concern and support for our men and women in uniform.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I want to say, we all know one thing in this House Chamber, those who know the record of the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Reyes), he is the finest border patrol chief probably in the history of our country. He has done a wonderful job. We are on opposite sides of this vote. I think the gentleman pointed out very clearly one reason we can be on opposite sides of this vote, and that is, this is a permission which, arguably, the President already has. It is not a mandate; it is a permission. I would contemplate this would only be used in extraordinary circumstances. Nonetheless, it is a resource that the Department of Homeland Security should have at their disposal should they need it for some exigency in the future. I want to support the Goode amendment, as I have historically. I thank Members on both sides for a very high-level debate.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion to recommit.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. Mr. Chairman, this place and our accomplishments all depend on great staff people. And that is what we had in Mr. Robert Rangel, who has been the staff director over these last several terms on the Committee on Armed Services. He was a staff leader for some 18 years, heading up our great bipartisan staff, and he is now leaving. I thought of all of the great descriptions of people who serve this Nation in uniform, that adherence to duty and honor and country, and I think those are the metrics by which Mr. Rangel has worked to serve our interests and serve the interests of the people of this country and to serve the interests of the people who wear the uniform of the United States.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from San Diego, California (Mr. Cunningham).

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to yield for the purpose of making a unanimous consent request to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson).

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Buyer), a veteran of Desert Storm and the chairman of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I would like to engage my colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr), in a colloquy.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to the gentlewoman's amendment. Make no mistake about it. This amendment is a message-sender. It is a message-sender to people like Al Sadr who are considering even now continuing to foment rebellion against the elected government in Iraq. It is a message-sender to Zarqawi and his followers, who think that perhaps the United States does not have the stomach to continue to oppose them. It is a message-sender to our troops, who might, in seeing if this amendment should pass, feel that the resolve of the American people is fading away. This is precisely the kind of a message we do not want to send to friend and foe alike, and certainly not to the 140,000 Americans serving presently in Iraq, who feel that the country is strongly behind them. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Davis).

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Hefley), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Readiness.

Mr. HUNTER. I yield to the gentleman from Missouri.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2\3/4\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Conaway).

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. Miller)

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that amendment No. 16 offered by the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews) and printed in House Report 109-96 be modified in the form I have placed at the desk.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole) for yielding me time and the Committee on Rules for their hard work on this bill, on the many amendments that they reviewed, took testimony on, and for their shaping of this package which will move the defense bill onto the floor here momentarily and allow us to do what it takes to make sure that the men and women of the Armed Forces, who are fighting in the war against terror in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other theaters around the world, will have the tools to get the job done. Now, we have two considerations here. One consideration is to make sure that Members get their amendments heard and have their voices heard. The other consideration is to make sure we get a bill. And sometimes one of those considerations overbalances the other. The worst thing that could happen is not to move this bill expeditiously through the House, move it quickly to conference, and provide the leadership not only for the base bill this year, but for the $49 billion that we have bolted onto the base package that, at the end of this fiscal year, will give our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan the force protection, the armor, the pay, the troop levels and all the other things that we need to carry out this mission. So this is a crucial and critical bill, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate the expeditious fashion that the committee has moved in. This bill provides a 3.1 percent pay raise for our troops. We have increased pay 25 percent over the last 4 years. It provides many, many personnel benefits. It provides an expansion of family housing. It provides additional bonus flexibility for the services to continue to attract and recruit Americans to come into the armed services. And it gives our people additional warfighting capability, additional sensors, additional armor, additional munitions and weapons, all the tools that they need to get the job done. At the same time, Mr. Speaker, we have put in some very important limitations on the costs of weapons systems. We see weapons systems costs going through the roof. We see a DDX program that now says it is going to cost $3 billion a ship. In a very businesslike way, we have analyzed these costs and the increases, and we have put in limitations and mechanisms that will allow us to control these costs. If we do not start bringing down the costs per ship, per aircraft, per big unit, we are not going to have enough of these systems to provide the coverage we need around the world. Mr. Speaker, this is the most important of bills. It is a bill that goes to the very heart of our freedom, and that is the equipping and projection of our Armed Forces. I thank the Committee on Rules for doing a great job in packaging this bill in a way that we can move it expeditiously across the floor. I thank the gentleman for his great work and his great work as a former member of the Committee on Armed Services, who is going to be coming back to see us and who sits in with us regularly.