[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 18]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 24726]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. STEVE SCALISE

                              of louisiana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 13, 2009

  Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, I support our troops, and that is why I 
voted for the Defense Authorization bill when it came before the House 
earlier this year in a straight up-or-down vote. Unfortunately, Speaker 
Pelosi decided to use our troops as political pawns by allowing the 
unrelated and ill-conceived ``thought crimes'' bill to be rammed into 
the final version of this conference report.
  It is a sad day for our country, and a shameful precedent, when the 
liberals running Congress hold our troops hostage to pass their radical 
social agenda. It is an insult to our servicemembers who are offended 
that they are being used as ``human shields'' in a political war waged 
by Speaker Pelosi to pass her radical social agenda, and I'm standing 
up for our troops by opposing this abuse of power. Speaker Pelosi and 
the liberals running Congress owe our military and their families an 
apology for playing political games with their mission.

                          ____________________