[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 7301-7302]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 CONGRESS CAN GIVE OUR TROOPS AND THE DEFENSE BUDGET THE PRIORITY THEY 
                                DESERVE

  (Mr. HEFLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HEFLEY. Madam Speaker, we are beginning to see evidence of 
military shortages everywhere. At the same time, our military is 
dangerously overstretched. We have fewer and fewer resources and more 
and more missions, many of them of dubious value and wisdom.
  Less than a month into a small operation, the President is already 
calling up 30,000 reservists. The U.S.S. Enterprise went to sea short 
of 400 personnel. Today there are 265,000 American troops in 135 
countries. Our troops are not being taken care of properly.
  It is tragic that it has taken the war in Kosovo to expose the total 
mismatch between resources and missions in the U.S. military: world 
policeman, global social worker, all the while cutting back 
dramatically and drastically

[[Page 7302]]

on weapons procurement, training, and personnel.
  This administration has not given our troops the priority they 
deserve. For 7 straight years, the President has sent Congress a 
defense budget that falls short of its needs. If Congress had not added 
to this budget each year since 1995, we would be in even worse shape.
  Kosovo illustrates the problem, but we in Congress have the power to 
correct it.

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