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| Preventing Cuts To Air National Guard |
May 18, 2012 |
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Kathy Hochul, D-NY
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"Mr. Speaker, as we begin voting on the National Defense Authorization Act later today, I want to remind people that, earlier this year, the Air Force proposed cutting 5,100 Air National Guard positions from our military. Part of this plan eliminates three C 130s and 800 jobs from the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station in my own district."
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| Personal Explanation |
May 18, 2012 |
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Jackie Speier, D-CA
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"Mr. Speaker, I was unfortunately unable to cast a vote on rollcall vote 291 on Friday, May 18, 2012 because I was tending to a family matter. H.R. 4310, the National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2013 does not sufficiently address the strategic or fiscal realities we are facing and I would have voted “no” on its passage. I would not in good conscience have been able to vote for this authorization bill that forces the Pentagon to accept $8 billion that it neither requested, needs, nor wants. Many weapons programs, like upgrades to the Army’s ground vehicles, were funded not only above the President’s request but the Pentagon’s. Some programs, like Block 30 of the Global Hawk, the Pentagon doesn’t want at all. Funding for East Coast missile defense dumps money into systems that don’t work against a remote, unlikely threat. Lastly, there are not sufficient safeguards in place to ensure that we are not only funding the right programs, but receiving a fair price for them."
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| Understanding The Place Of The District Of Columbia In Our Structure |
May 18, 2012 |
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Eleanor Norton, D-DC
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"It is true that on some matters the District cannot legislate for itself. Those matters involve things like imposing a commuter tax or changing the limits on how high buildings can be in the District, because we don’t want to obscure the great monuments. But I assure you that the enumerated congressional powers over the District are quite small, and that none of what I have to say this afternoon is among those areas where Congress has said, only Congress itself should be able to legislate."
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