[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 177 (Thursday, November 9, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H12068-H12069]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  NATIONAL SECURITY REVITALIZATION ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Saxton] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak for just a moment 
about the defense authorization conference report which we hope will be 
reported from the conference this evening. Last year Republicans made a 
treaty with the American people. In effect, we said that, if 
Republicans are put in charge of Congress, we would turn things around. 
We would not let Washington operate as it had in the past, and the 
Republican Contract With America was a line in the sand saying, enough 
is enough.
  One of the key components of the contract was the National Security 
Revitalization Act. This act was a commitment to the men and women in 
uniform that Congress would not allow a return to a hollow military 
force like we had in the 1970's. The National Security Revitalization 
Act made a commitment to stop the 10-year slide in defense funding. 
That is right. Every year for the last 10 years, we spend less in real 
dollars than we did the year before.
  The specific implementation of that commitment is contained in the 
1996 defense authorization bill. I am happy to hear that we are nearing 
final agreement with our Senate colleagues on a final bill. This bill 
has been a long time in the making. In fact, there are skeptics who 
thought we may not be able to produce an authorization bill at all.
  Those skeptics were wrong. Soon we will be able to bring a bill to 
the floor which represents a watershed in defense funding.
  Contained in the bill, I believe, are some key elements, some things 
that are very, very important to the new threat that we face today.
  For example, with regard to the quality of life of our military men 
and women, we provide for a pay raise, something that is much needed 
and overdue. We have also provided for a new housing initiative which 
adds $450 million, making a total of about $1.5 billion in spending 
which will go to 

[[Page H 12069]]
modernization and renovation of family quarters and of course bachelor 
or single person quarters.
  Also on the hardware side, we funded eight C-17's for the next fiscal 
year. I am pleased to hear that the Air Force has decided to request a 
total buy of 120 C-17's over the next several years. That is important 
because of the threat we face. It is important because we have brought 
many of our military people home from overseas. And when regional 
conflicts occur, it is important to be able to get back there. So this 
additional capability is something which I believe is much needed.
  In addition to that, we continually send carrier groups to sea. The 
protection, the defense for those carrier groups is a system known as 
the Aegis system which is incorporated on our destroyers built here in 
this country, and in the gentleman's district from Mississippi, I might 
add. And these destroyers, which will be funded this year, will provide 
for three new Aegis destroyers which I might again say are state-of-
the-art ships.
  We have also provided for an additional 20 fighter and attack 
aircraft, 20 new Army helicopters, and we propose to spend $110 million 
to modernize the M-1 tanks.
  I might just say on this last point that it is especially important 
inasmuch as we saw what tank technology did for the American soldier 
during the last war in the Middle East The new threat for tanks comes 
not from the front of the tank, not from the rear of the tank but from 
new weapons that have been developed to kill tanks from overhead. So it 
is of vital importance that this goes into place as well.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to bring these items to the attention 
of the Members, and hopefully within the next few weeks we will be in a 
position to vote finally for this defense authorization bill.

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