Buck McKeon

Mr. McKEON

Mr. McKEON. Madam Speaker, I rise today to join the entire House Armed Services family in my shock and sadness at the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and members of her staff. The tragic events that occurred this past Saturday give us all reason to come together and reflect on the frailty of human life--my thoughts and prayers go out to Gabby, to her family, and to all the victims of this heinous crime. Violent acts of this nature have no place in our democratic society, and it is my hope that justice will be swift for those who perpetrated this attack. I spoke with Gabby just before the holidays and am reminded of her tireless efforts to work across party lines in representing Arizona's 8th Congressional District, as well as her unwavering support for our men and women in uniform. Today we rise to honor the service of Representative Giffords and offer our thoughts and prayers for her, her family, and all victims of this attack.

Mr. McKEON

Mr. McKEON. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I have 1\1/2\ minutes remaining, and the chairman has 30 seconds remaining?

Mr. McKEON. I would like to yield the gentleman from Missouri 30 seconds of my 1\1/2\ minutes. Mr. Speaker, as has been mentioned before, Chairman Skelton, Mr. Spratt, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Ortiz, Mr. Snyder--all on the top row-- represent over 100 years of experience, of service, of dedication, of devotion to the troops. To those who were representing us around the world and protecting our freedoms, I want to thank them for their service. I have had the opportunity of traveling with Ike, and I have watched him relate to the troops and their families. He just has a spirit about him, and they love to see him. They are going to miss him. We are going to miss him on the committee. I am going to vote for the Ike Skelton bill, mainly because it's Ike Skelton, and I encourage all members of our conference to do so. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. McKEON. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. McKEON. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McKEON. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Thornberry), a member of the committee, who will be the vice chairman of the committee in the next Congress.

Mr. McKEON. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining on both sides?

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman who just spoke, Mr. Snyder, is also leaving us. He retired. I want to thank him for the years of service that he rendered to this committee and to this Congress and to the Nation. At this time, Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Turner), the ranking member on the Strategic Forces Subcommittee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wittman), the ranking member on the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to echo the words of Mr. Smith in honoring all of those men that he just mentioned that served for so many years on this committee. At this time I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks).

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Forbes), the ranking member on the Readiness Subcommittee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Conaway), a member of the committee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to speak with a heavy heart for a couple of reasons. One is the process that has brought us to this point. And the other is that this will be the last defense bill for my good friend and partner on the committee, Ike Skelton, our chairman. He has been a force on the committee and within the defense community for decades. The way he has conducted business on the committee sets an example for all members of the committee and for this Congress to follow. Considering Ike's legacy, the actions of the Democratic leaders in the Senate and the House are all the more frustrating to me. They have made it completely clear that they place a higher priority on repealing the Pentagon's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy than on the National Defense Authorization Act. The procedure that is set up in the House for passing legislation is, for the House to pass a bill, it goes through committee, goes through hearings. Finally it is passed by the committee, passed on the floor. And then a similar process should be followed in the Senate. And then once those two bills have been passed, we have conferees appointed. The conferees get together and negotiate the differences in the bills, and final bills are brought back to the floor. To this date, we have not had a Senate bill passed on the floor. So this brings us to this point without a Senate bill and giving individual Senators the opportunity to have a line-item veto on the House bill after we pass it here and send it back over. Many of the provisions that we have passed in our bill went through a semi-conference, and some of the provisions which were championed by the House, including a higher pay raise for our troops than the statutorily mandated pay raise of 1.4 percent, a provision which would have exempted critical force protection and medevac personnel from any troop cap in Afghanistan, and several provisions regarding the Nation's nuclear and missile defense policies, those found themselves on the cutting room floor of the conference. Most of those provisions have significant support in the House of Representatives. Mr. Speaker, the American people have spoken. And in the process that we had, the election, they are demanding a process that is better than the one that got us to this point. They want a legislative process that works to provide our troops with the resources they need, not a process that is held up for months and then rushed through in the waning minutes of a lame duck session. The process in the Senate, coupled with the Democratic leadership's goal of advancing legislation to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell ahead of the annual defense authorization bill, has politicized the National Defense Authorization Act, and it's indicative of a flawed process with misguided priorities. In a time of war, Mr. Speaker, this is unconscionable. One thing I can promise to the American people and to our military: They will no longer be used as a political football. We will return to regular order in the next Congress, and I think that is something that we can all look forward to with pleasure. Now, back to my good friend, the chairman on the committee. I want to commend him for years of service to this Nation, to this Congress, to the people that he has represented. We all owe him a debt of gratitude, and I have appreciated working with him, especially in these last 2 years, as I had the opportunity to serve as the ranking member alongside him. We will all miss him. Ike, we owe you much and appreciate your service. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson), the ranking member on the Military Personnel Subcommittee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett), the ranking member on the Air and Land Forces Subcommittee.

Mr. McKEON

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson), the ranking member on the Military Personnel Subcommittee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Akin), the ranking member on the Seapower Subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee.

Mr. McKEON. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, here we go again. The Speaker has decided once more to subvert regular order in the waning moments of this Congress and bring to the floor, without consideration by the House Armed Services Committee, a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Now, anyone who was listening earlier to the Clerk read the bill that we're discussing, it is titled: To amend the Small Business Act with respect to the Small Business Innovation Research Program and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program. Now, if you're confused, what they have done is taken this bill that has passed, stripped out what is in it, and put in Don't Ask, Don't Tell. So today, we will debate this standalone measure as a priority when we don't even have a National Defense Authorization Act for 2011. The other body cannot get its work done on that bill because the leadership there placed a higher priority on repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell to satisfy a Democratic liberal agenda than on passing a bill designed to meet the broad needs and requirements of our national defense, as well as those men and women serving in harm's way. Where are the Democrat priorities? Certainly not with overall national security. So now we are here to consider the bill by Representative Murphy. It comes to the floor without the committee of jurisdiction being able to formally examine the issues raised by the recent DOD report and without the ability to question witnesses who would have to implement the repeal. Essentially, the high-handed actions of the Speaker forcing this bill to the floor deny the House an ability to assess the conflicting testimony and conclusions that have been rendered by the report. So I rise in strong opposition to Mr. Murphy's bill. He and the House leadership behind him bring it to the floor in complete disregard for the testimony of three of the four service chiefs and their warning that implementing repeal now will have a negative impact on combat readiness. Let me repeat that: three of the four service chiefs warn that implementing repeal now will have a negative impact on combat readiness. This is something we all ought to pay serious attention to when we are fighting two wars. Beyond that, Mr. Murphy brings this bill to the floor in complete disregard for the concerns of those actually in the combat arms. As we now know: ``The percentage of the overall U.S. military that predicts negative or very negative effects on their units' ability to `work together to get the job done' is 30 percent; the percentage for the Marine Corps is 43 percent, 48 percent within Army combat units, and 58 percent within Marine combat units.'' If there is any doubt about where the service chiefs stand, here is what they told the other body. General Casey, the Army Chief of Staff said, ``I think it's important that we're clear about the military risks. Implementation of the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell would be a major cultural and policy change in the middle of a war. It would be implemented by a force and leaders that are already stretched by the cumulative effects of almost a decade of war and by a force in which substantial numbers of soldiers perceive that repeal will have a negative impact on unit effectiveness and morale, and that implementation will be difficult. ``I believe that the implementation of repeal in the near term will: one, add another level of stress to an already stretched force; two, be more difficult in our combat arms units; and, three, be more difficult for the Army than the report suggests. ``My recommendation would be that implementation begins when our singular focus is no longer on combat operations or preparing units for combat. I would not recommend going forward at this time given everything that the Army has on its plate.'' The commandant of the Marine Corps, General James Amos, said, ``If the law is changed, it has strong potential for disruption at the small unit level as it will no doubt divert leadership attention away from an almost singular focus on preparing units for combat. ``Based on what I know about the very tough fight in Afghanistan, the almost singular focus of our combat forces as they train up and deploy to the theater, the necessary tightly woven culture of those combat forces that we are asking so much of at this time and, finally, the direct feedback from the survey, my recommendation is that we should not implement repeal at this time. ``What I would want to have with regards to implementation would be a period of time where our marines are no longer focused primarily on combat. All I am asking is for the opportunity to implement repeal at a time and choosing when my marines are not singularly, tightly focused on what they're doing in a very deadly environment.'' Just yesterday, General Amos made clear just how strongly he feels about the threat that repeal poses to marines in combat, warning ``that a change in current policy could pose a deadly distraction on the Afghanistan battlefield. I don't want to lose any marines to a distraction,'' Amos said in a roundtable discussion with journalists at the Pentagon. Air Force Chief of Staff, General Norman Schwartz, said, ``I do not agree with the study assessment that the short-term risk to military effectiveness is low. Our officer and NCO leaders in Afghanistan in particular are carrying a heavy load. I remain concerned with the study assessment that the risk of repeal of military effectiveness in Afghanistan is low. That assessment is too optimistic. I suggested that perhaps full implementation could occur in 2012, but I do not think it prudent to seek full implementation in the near term. I think that is too risky.'' These are three of our four Chiefs of Staff. I strongly believe that we ought to listen closely to the concerns of the service chiefs if for no other reason than they are closer to the sense and pulse of their services than are the Secretary of Defense or the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Moreover, I also believe that we should do nothing at this time to threaten the readiness of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who are at the tip of the spear, fighting America's two wars. So I urge all Members to vote ``no'' on the Murphy bill. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes at this time to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett), the ranking member on the Air and Land Subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee.

Mr. McKEON. I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.