[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 55 (Friday, March 24, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H3792-H3793]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                    MILITARY TRAINING AND READINESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Cunningham] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, during the last Congress when my 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle were in the majority, many of 
us testified that the extension of Somalia was, first of all, going to 
cost American lives; second, that it was going to cost billions and 
billions of dollars, and at the same time it was going to eliminate 
readiness, because the amount of training that our military was able to 
do during the extension of Somalia in peacekeeping would be diminished.
  We also recognized that a policy change from humanitarian to go after 
General Aideed would be disastrous, and during that time those 
decisions 
[[Page H3793]] were made and my colleagues on the other side of the 
aisle, in a partisanship vote, passed the extension of Somalia.
  We take a look at us going into Haiti. It is costing us billions and 
billions of dollars in nation building.
  We look at the money we have given to the former Soviet Union, 
Russia. We gave Russia over a billion dollars to dismantle nuclear 
weapons. We gave them billions of dollars in nation building.
  But last year they built and are steaming five nuclear class Typhoon 
submarines and three other submarines that are developed just to tap 
into our communications cables in the Atlantic and the Pacific. They 
are building MiG-35's, which are superior to our F-14 and F-15. They 
are building AA-10 missiles, which are superior to our AMRAAM, but yet, 
many say the cold war is over.
  And we look at the billions of dollars we are spending in Bosnia and 
across the, the Members on the other side of the aisle, they are 
decrying we are cutting, we are cutting, we need to apply the money to 
the deficit. Well, I say, Mr. Speaker, we would have billions of 
dollars to apply to the deficit and we would also not have a military 
with its readiness and national security forces so low.
  I sit on the former Committee on Armed Services which is now called 
the Committee on National Security, and we have had the Joint Chiefs 
testify that we are on the razor's edge, or another term was buffet, 
which means the position just before you stall an airplane, on our 
national security.

                              {time}  1415

  And just a minute ago, the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Obey] 
objected to a motion that would allow us to bring an appropriations 
bill forward to help the readiness. Our men and women, many agree, need 
better equipment, less troops and high technology. But we must help and 
support the appropriations bill on Tuesday.
  We would have hoped that we could have filed it today because we are 
risking the men and women's lives.
  Kara Hultgreen, a young lady, highly trained and motivated, and the 
first F-14 driver in the U.S. Navy, she came around the corner just a 
few weeks ago on an F-14 aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. She had an 
engine failure.
  On our side of the aisle. Republicans tried to get additional money 
to replace those engines because the compressor stalls. But many of the 
liberals on that side said, ``Let's cut defense.'' They cut it $177 
billion. What we are seeing--we lost five Navy airplanes in the last 2 
months, the Air Force has lost four to faulty parts and engines and 
poor training. I would say, Mr. Speaker, if we really care about our 
men and women that we expect to fight and, in some cases, die for this 
country, that we need to support them.
  I beg Members from the other side of the aisle to consider, take a 
look at what we have done in the past. We need to stay out of countries 
like Haiti, Somalia, Rwanda, and Bosnia. Let us support things back 
home.

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