Adam Smith

Mr. SMITH of Washington

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar).

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Correa).

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I, too, want to thank all the people who worked to put together this product. As always, our committee, I think, was a fine example, both of how to legislate and how to do it in a bipartisan way, starting at the committee process, starting with the chairman's mark. As the chairman has mentioned, just about everybody in this House has contributed to this product, either in committee or once we got to the Rules Committee with the amendments that they offered. It took an extraordinary amount of work on behalf of the Members, but, most importantly, on behalf of staff to sift through all of those amendments, to reach agreements where they could, to set up reasonable debate where they couldn't, and they did an outstanding job. This is the best staff I have ever worked with. They do an amazing job. And we all have to remember the baseline reason why we are doing this. As the authorizing bill for the Department of Defense, this is the bill that sets the policy that helps the men and women who fight and serve to protect our country. So it is an incredibly important task. I want to particularly thank the chairman. It has been a great working relationship this year, as always. I think we have an excellent product. I look forward to getting it passed today and going to conference with the Senate. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chair, we have no further speakers. I urge adoption of the amendments en bloc, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SMITH of Washington

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Frankel).

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I claim time in opposition, although I am not opposed.

Mr. SMITH of Washington

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Schneider).

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano).

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski).

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, we have no further speakers. I urge adoption of the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SMITH of Washington

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I, too, have no speakers on this amendment. I urge adoption of the en bloc amendments, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Schneider).

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Cardenas).

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, we have no further speakers. Mr. Chairman, I urge adoption of the amendments en bloc, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chair, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wilson).

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Delaware (Ms. Blunt Rochester).

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Carbajal), who is a member of the Armed Services Committee.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel), who is the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr. SMITH of Washington

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I, too, have no requests for time, urge adoption of the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I, too, urge adoption, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, we have no speakers. I urge adoption, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I have no speakers. I urge adoption, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SMITH of Washington

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chair, first, let me say I agree with Mr. Nolan on a couple of key points. Number one, I think the overseas contingency fund has come to be relied on too much. Yes, it was created before the Budget Control Act, but these wars have been going on long enough now that we ought to be able to incorporate it into the funds. So I agree with him on that. But completely zeroing out the overseas contingency fund, I think, is irresponsible, because while I agree in some cases the terrorism threat may be overblown, it is, nonetheless, real. Yemen is always the best example. We went into Afghanistan after 9/ 11. We dealt with that. We thought we had al-Qaida contained. And then we had the underwear bomber in Detroit and the package bombs that both almost came into the U.S. and attacked us, and they came out of Yemen. So we had to respond to that. We had to respond in our own self- defense. And that is part of what the overseas contingency fund funds. So, if we wanted to reduce it, if we wanted to get more transparency, I am all for that. But to simply zero it out would basically be to say that we have all these wars and we really have none of them. I am somewhere in between on that. So I can't support zeroing out the overseas contingency fund, although I do agree with some of the statements that the sponsor of the amendment made. Mr. Chairman, because it zeros it out completely, I have to oppose the amendment.

Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition, although I am not opposed to the amendment.