WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. released the following video that will be presented at the Fort Polk Listening Session today.
Watch the video HERE and read his remarks below.
Hello, I’m Bill Cassidy United States Senator for Louisiana.
Thank you for allowing me to join and for the opportunity to say thank you for everything you do for Louisiana and for our nation. For those who made the trip to Fort Polk today, you will see the Fort Polk community is special.
For generations, Fort Polk has hosted our service men and women. The community surrounding Fort Polk have welcomed Fort Polk’s growth, working hard to improve schools and infrastructure to support Fort Polk’s mission and it is a top-notch installation. I may add, it is the only Army installation growing in land size, one of the few installations that would require no new military construction funding to accommodate an additional 1,000 soldiers.
Another brigade combat team can come to Fort Polk without costing the Army a dime in extra funds. Fort Polk has everything required for an entire division to conduct maneuvers including exceptional and encroached training spaces, excellent air and sea ports for embarkation and debarkation, and new facilities designed to host a striker brigade combat team.
Fort Polk’s existence is essential to training our service men and women to defend our country. At a time of budgetary constraints, cost effective training has never been more important. Fort Polk trains our troops in the most cost effective manner.
I serve on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and I will pay close attention to the military construction budget and how we appropriate scarce resources. These construction dollars should be optimized to ensure readiness for future challenges. The Louisiana delegation will continue to support the U.S. Army, as the U.S. Army defends our country. Our nation’s defense must always be a top priority.
To those visiting from the Pentagon, we thank you for listening. To those on active duty, we thank you for your service. It was an honor to speak to you today. God bless you, your families and God bless the United States of America.
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