In fact, in 2002, the Secretary of Defense authorized such support on a reimbursable basis to organizations formerly components of the Department of Justice and Department of the Treasury and currently components of the Department of Homeland Security.
I opposed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. It should be repealed and I will vote for its repeal on the Senate floor. I will also oppose any proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban gays and lesbians from marrying.
That is not to say that we can relax our readiness to defend ourselves. Our armament must be adequate to the needs, but our faith is not primarily in these machines of defense but in ourselves.
But the federal government, our collective government, has responsibilities that none of these other levels of government can fulfill; and chief among these is national defense.
If your basic premise about the fundamental purpose of our government is that it must provide for the common defense, then no other position is possible.
We've been playing ugly. Without all of our bodies, we've been kicking it all over the shop, but fortunately we've been able to make the big buckets and rely on our defense for once.
And we ask the American people to play an important part of our layered defense. We ask for cooperation, patience and a commitment to vigilance in the face of a determined enemy.
In such a state, humility is the virtue of men, and their only defense; to walk humbly with God, never doubting, whatever befall, that His will is good, and that His law is right.
