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AL.com | Washington leaders assure Huntsville delegation that defense spending remains priority

April 23, 2013

Washington leaders assure Huntsville delegation that defense spending remains priority
By Mark McCarter | AL.com | April 23, 2013

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Give 'em credit. No matter their geography or party, their experience and their ideology, they knew their audience.

On Tuesday morning, a Macy's-length parade of Senators and Congressmen spoke to a 170-member delegation from Huntsville and the surrounding area, vowing their support for and stressing the importance of a strong U.S. defense, particularly in the realm of missile defense.

"If we don't get national security right, then the rest just comes down to conversation," said Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota).

"The number one thing people ought to be thinking about, other than finances, is the security of our nation," said U.S, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala,). "As long as I'm on Appropriations (Committee) and I'm breathing, we're going to make that a priority."

"The number one priority of this Federal government is to secure national security," said U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) "Your area plays an important role in that."

This annual two-day trip to Washington, led by the Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County and its supporters, brought the delegation to Capitol Hill for a breakfast meeting in the Kennedy Caucus Room in the Russell Senate Building, then later to an auditorium in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Alabama senators Shelby and Jeff Sessions hosted the breakfast meeting, calling on a little help from their friends. Those making brief visits to speak were, in order of appearance, Sen. Mark Begich (D-Ak.), Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Thune, Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo).

Rep. Mo Brooks, the Republican from the 5th District of Alabama, and Rep. Robert Aderholt, the Republican from the 4th District, invited Cantor, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga), Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-Wash.) and Rep. Terri Sewell, who represents Alabama's 7th District and is the lone Democratic voice in the state's Capitol Hill delegation.

With an overwhelming majority of Republicans as the morning's speakers, there was no small shortage of surgical attacks on President Obama and his policies while, in almost the same breath, issuing the urgent cry for non-partisanship in Washington.

"It's a volatile place up here," Shelby acknowledged.

"This is the time for adult leadership," McConnell said. "We need a president who is willing to lead. ... The time to do it is now and we need to do it together."

"We don't have any problems in our country that can't be solved with leadership," Dr. Coburn said. "The problem is always about the next election."

Dr. Coburn had self-imposed term limits on himself as a Congressman and won't run at the end of this, his second term as a senator.

"We're dysfunctional not because of partisanship," he said. "We're dysfunctional because we're focused on the next election."

With Alaska's proximity to North Korea and the mercurial Kim Jong-un, Begich stressed the importance of missile defense, in which Huntsville has such a role.

"It's suddenly a whole new picture," Begich said of North Korea. "We need to be one step ahead of where we think they are."

While Interceptor missiles are poised in the western U.S., Inhofe fretted "I'm not confident for the other direction."

He charged "we are starving our military because of the things (Obama) is doing for his liberal programs," calling him a "President who is anti-defense."

Udall stressed the importance of greater education and training in science and technology, and invoked the name of John F. Kennedy, recalling the president's quotation "about peace through strength."

Shelby is a member of the Appropriations Committee and Sessions is on the Budget Committee, so several of the colleagues they invited Tuesday are also on those committees. Thus the discussion also turned to the budget.

"We've got a huge spending problem in this country," McConnell said, saying we now "look like a Western European country" in terms of fiscal responsibility.

"Everybody knows this is the largest debtor country in the world," Shelby said. "We still have that staggering debt. Two-thirds of the budget is entitlements. It's a tough thing to deal with, politically tough. But if we don't deal with it, the market will deal with it."

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