[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7542]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           MILITARY READINESS

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, the dishonest demagoguery about Social 
Security has begun. However, I continue to be troubled by the state of 
our military readiness. For years the Clinton administration has 
reduced spending for national defense while sending our troops on more 
and more deployments. The result, our military readiness has declined.
  Case in point: A Lieutenant Junior Grade in our Navy was recently 
quoted as saying, and I quote, ``It took us two days to complete what 
should have been a two-hour procedure for all of these reasons: We 
could not get a hydraulic test stand that worked correctly. The support 
equipment people could not fix the hydraulic test stand because they 
did not have the correct publications. The publications had not been 
updated to reflect the new tool requirements. Nobody knew how to 
operate the new test equipment. If we do not have the people or tools 
to fix the aircraft, then the aircraft cannot fly.''
  Mr. Speaker, we need to commit to restoring our military to a level 
capable of defending the United States of America. We need to support 
our troops, our young sons and daughters who lay their lives on the 
line to defend this great country.

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