[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23877]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                    NATIONAL DEFENSE IS IN BAD SHAPE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, today, the President signed the defense bill 
and he gave, in signing the defense bill, a speech in which I think he 
gave a dangerously false message to the American people. That message 
was that defense is in good shape.
  Defense is not in good shape. We are $3.5 billion short on ammunition 
for the Army. We are $193 million short on ammunition for the Marine 
Corps. We have 10,000 uniformed families on food stamps because they 
are about 13 percent under the wages of their counterparts in the 
civilian sector.
  Our aircraft are in such bad shape that only about 65 percent of them 
can get off the ground and go do their mission. Our Navy now is lacking 
18,000 sailors because we cannot get sailors to join Mr. Clinton's 
Navy. We are about 800 pilots short in the Air Force, and it costs 
millions of dollars to train a pilot, and it takes a long time. If the 
balloon goes up and we have a war, we are not going to be ready.
  So the President has cut defense disastrously. His own Joint Chiefs, 
some of whom stood behind him in that press conference said that his 
budget was underfunded by about $20 billion. The Air Force said they 
need an extra $5 billion. The Navy said they need an extra $6 billion a 
year, the Army an extra $5 billion, and the Marine Corps an extra $1.75 
billion. On top of that, they need an extra $2.5 billion a year to pay 
for the retirement and the wages that are necessary to keep good people 
in the service.
  So the Clinton administration has dragged down national defense.
  Now, Congress has added some money to the defense bill. We have added 
about $50 billion over the last 6 years, but that is not enough. We 
have added as much as we thought we could add without getting the bill 
vetoed by President Clinton. Even then, he has threatened vetoes on a 
number of occasions.
  But defense is in difficult condition. It is in bad shape. If we had 
to fight the two-war scenario, that is, if we had to fight on the 
Korean Peninsula and we


had to fight in the Middle East today, we would have a lot of Americans 
coming home in body bags because we are short on ammo, short on spare 
parts, and short on technically knowledgeable people in extremely 
critical areas. We need more money. We need it desperately.

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