No Appropriated Funds

Floor Speech

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Mr. WITTMAN. Well, thank you, Representative Carter. I thank you and Representative Gohmert for your leadership in putting forth a bill to make sure we address this issue of military pay for our men and women in uniform.

And, you know, Mr. Speaker, we shouldn't even be here tonight. We should be having before us a spending decision that doesn't call into question whether or not we can pay our men and women in uniform. Now, that's absolutely reprehensible. You know, it's clear that this spending discussion needs to be focused, and it needs to be focused on making sure that we're getting our troops paid, bottom line, period.

I had the opportunity a couple weeks ago to travel to Afghanistan, and I had the privilege there to visit with a young man who's a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force. And I had met his family earlier in the little town of Pocosin. And I was there for a pancake breakfast one morning there at a middle school, and I had a chance to see his family there, and I talked to his wife, and I met his children. And they told me that their father was deployed downrange. And I asked where he was, and they gave me the information. And I said, Well, listen. I'm going to be going there soon. I want to make sure that I have a chance to visit him.

So I was able to go downrange and visit this fine lieutenant colonel. He's doing a great job for this Nation. They are under very trying conditions there in Afghanistan. I had a chance to thank him for his service and had a chance to also, when I got back, to call his wife and to thank her and her family for their sacrifice and for them staying back home here in anxiety as their father and husband served downrange.

And folks, I cannot imagine being in a situation to look that lieutenant colonel in the eye and say, You know something? Thank you for your service. Thank you for your sacrifice. But we don't think enough about what you're doing to even have the backbone to stand and make sure that you get paid.

You know, how do you look at their family, that mother who's at home, those children whose father and husband are downrange being deployed, and look them in the eye and say, Hey, listen, thanks for your sacrifice, but, by the way, we're not going to be able to make a decision up here to make sure that you get the paycheck that supports your family in the weeks to come? I mean, I cannot imagine how we are letting ourselves get to that point.

Mr. Speaker, there is a lack of fortitude to make sure that we get this done and get it done now. Just as Representative Carter said, the time is now. This needs to get done. We have a deadline of Friday. This Congress needs to act, get this done.

And also, as you pointed out, we have a spending problem here. It is clear that spending is absolutely out of control. As Mr. Carter said, clearly there is a spending issue we need to address. We're on an unsustainable path. This has to be done. This decision has to be done on time.

The American people expect leadership out of this Congress. They expect leadership out of both sides. As the Speaker said, we can't continue to negotiate with ourselves. We have to have folks on the other side of the aisle that are willing and able to say yes, we're going to get these things done; there's at least a counterproposal, instead of saying no, no, no. There has to be more to this than ``no.''

Our goal is to cut spending and reduce the size of government. It's not to shut it down. I know you hear out there people say, oh, you know, they want to shut it down. They want to shut it down. That's the last thing we want to do. We don't want to shut it down. We want to make sure that our military gets paid. That's the bottom line. And we have to get this thing done as soon as possible.

My question is: Is Congress in Washington, D.C., so out of touch that we don't get it, that we don't get what the American people have sent us here to do, what they want us to accomplish? Do they expect from us that we're going to forgo a budget and not ensure that our military families get paid? I think that's not the case.

They want to make sure we act, and I want to make sure that we act and make sure that we get things done. And I think we ought to bypass the 72-hour review rule and get this done out of respect for our men and women in uniform.

Again, I want to thank my colleagues, Mr. Carter and Mr. Gohmert, for their leadership in bringing this bill forward to ensure that our military get their pay.

I am a proud cosponsor of that act because I think it is the responsible way to go about getting things done. I was also eager to join 80 of my colleagues in signing a letter to Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid to let him know that this needs to get done: We need to pay our men and women in uniform.

You know, in my district, in what we call America's first district, we have a proud tradition of military there, with seven military installations and a number of people there that serve this country and are now retired or in active duty. We have a great military presence there.

I got a call the other day from a mother in Stafford County. And she said, ``My husband is an active duty military officer. And if I understand the news correctly, if this budget isn't passed by April 8, 2011, the military will be expected to work and will not be paid until the budget has been passed. My family will struggle. And I am concerned about how I am going to pay my mortgage and feed my family. If the military is asked to work without pay, you will be causing severe stress on our families. As a spouse who has endured my husband's deployment in Iraq four times, I know the thought of not getting paid would be making me sick. I also know that I would not be able to talk to my husband about this concern because I wouldn't want him to worry. Please work hard and pass the budget. I am counting on you.''

Folks, there are so many people out there that are counting on us, counting on Congress to stand up and do what is needed to be done to make sure that our military families get paid, to make sure that we adopt a budget, to make sure that we get this country on the right track to reduce spending. The time has come for us to get that done.

You know, our military members out there do a fantastic job for this country. It is unconscionable to even think about them worrying about not getting paid, or for folks downrange to be thinking about what's happening here in Washington rather than being able to focus on their mission downrange. Folks, we need to get this done. Our military families serve this Nation with honor, with distinction, and without question. And they are there performing flawlessly. They don't have to, I think, be expected to have that uncertainty about what's going to happen here in the future.

So I want to make sure that this bill gets done and that we take away any worry from our military families or folks serving downrange. Our military families need to be worrying about the everyday necessities of life, and not have to worry about getting paid and to make sure they can meet those necessities. And our men and women downrange need to be focusing on the mission that they have at hand.

Just as Mr. Carter said, our military and their families have been to war now for almost 10 years, some of them on their fifth, sixth, and seventh deployments. You know, we need to keep in mind the sacrifices that those families make and know the great job that they are doing, the hard work that they put forward. It's time for us to show the same resolve here and get this budget done and make sure that we without question assure that our military families are paid, that our men and women that serve downrange get the respect that they deserve from this body here in Congress.

So Mr. Carter, I thank you for your leadership. Mr. Gohmert, I thank him for his leadership in making sure that this is first and foremost in our minds about ensuring that our military gets paid.

With that, Mr. Carter, I yield back.

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