mr. veasey: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. veasey: mr. speaker, i rise today to speak out against the republican budget plan. budgets are not just numbers on a piece of paper. they are moral documents. moral documents that demonstrate our nation's values ideas and our priorities. the house republican budget of work harder and get less is not where it's at. their budget makes it harder for american families to pay for a home, to send their kids to college. it keeps paychecks in this country stagnant and it's something we should not tolerate. instead, republicans should work with democrats to end the sequestration so we can make it easier to send our kids to college. fix our roads that crumbling every day and also to make sure we can keep good-paying jobs here in our country. that's the american dream of the that's the land of opportunity, and i urge the republicans to work with us and not against us so we can fix this problem for the ame

mr. veasey. >> thank you mr. chairman. one of the things that comes up in these challenging budget discussions when we have to make a trade off for some of the political obstacles that members of this committee or even the larger of the congress put in front of you and i would like to just take a minute to try to bring some of those to the surface. you have heard talk about cuts you want to make better painful like cutting a tenor making changes in the compensation system but if each of you could explicate for us if you come in greater detail a few of these challenges that you see from us when you are trying to make sure you do your jobs under the constraint that we put before you. >> so if you want specific examples specific examples for us is end strength. we have taken 80,000 out of the component and even under the president's budget it will be a total of 120,000 out of the national guard and 10,000 out of the u.s. army reserve. so we have significantly reduced our size and ability to respond. in addition to that we hav

mr. veasey: what about a u.s. drawdown, how would that be perceived in the terror community? do you think the people in the terror community taliban or even outside the taliban or outside of afghanistan how do they view the afghan capability as far as being able to protect their own country? general campbell: i go back, if i could answer the last one in more detail. there was, i think at different points of time a sense of abandonment if you talk to some afghans. the security forces as they get the message out and show the afghan people what they are capable ever and that increases their confidence that the afghan security forces can handle this. there was abandonment type discussions going on. i haven't seen that as the afghan security forces continues to get better and better. in the terror community that you talked about, i think they were thinking that the coalition would be gone after 2014. and that they would wait that out with the b.s.a. and sofa now signed, that for many years, we will have a continued commitment by the international community to remain in afghanistan

mr. veasey: what about a u.s. drawdown, how would that be perceived in the terror community? do you think the people in the terror community, taliban or even outside the taliban or outside of afghanistan, how do they view the afghan capability as far as being able to protect their own country? general campbell: i go back, if i could answer the last one in more detail. there was, i think at different points of time a sense of abandonment if you talk to some afghans. the security forces as they get the message out and show the afghan people what they are capable ever and that increases their confidence that the afghan security forces can handle this. there was abandonment type discussions going on. i haven't seen that as the afghan security forces continues to get better and better. in the terror community that you talked about, i think they were thinking that the coalition would be gone after 2014. and that they would wait that out with the b.s.a. and sofa now signed, that for many years, we will have a continued commitment by the international community to remain in afghanist

mr. veasey: mr.peaker, i rise today to honor the life of a longtime friend, mary edwards, state democratic executive committee woman and board member for tarrant county stonewall democrats. mary was born in clarksville, a little town next to paris and moved to fort worth with her family when she was a kid. she dedicated her time to helping others and making a difference to anyone she came across. i can personally attest to this as mary was very active in the community, very engaged. in particular, she will be remembered for her work with longtime state representative, now former state representative, juan bernam. she served in various roles in the committee. she was very active in the lgbt community very proud of her work and a member of the communication workers of america and she was very active in the neighborhood that she lived in. my heart felt sympathy goes out to her younger brother and her niece who she greatly adored. and i can tell you personally that it's going to be sad to go to the democ