Mr. AKIN. Mr. Speaker, some years ago, actually quite a number of years ago, I had an opportunity to witness a total solar eclipse. That's one of those things that happens very, very rarely, and it was quite interesting.

Today, we are looking at another eclipse of reason that happens very rarely. For the first time in 48 or 50 years, the Congress has not passed a defense bill. Now, that's pretty serious. First time in 48 years, no defense bill passed by Congress? And what are we here today debating? Well, we're debating the idea of an imposition of somebody's social agenda that they want to impose on the military.

[Time: 15:50] Now, it would seem to me that, at a minimum, we would want to get down a defense bill before we got into this particular topic. But no. No. Instead, we are going to try to impose something when we are fighting two wars.

Now, the fact of the matter is that, in spite of a survey that tried to be biased, you have got the leadership of the Air Force under General Schwartz, leadership of the Army under General Casey, and the Marine Corps leadership under General Amos all opposing making these changes on this instantaneous basis, imposing this social agenda. So we are kind of experiencing something like a solar eclipse, except it's an eclipse of reason, an eclipse of common sense.

I have three sons that have served in the Marine Corps, two who are currently in the Marines. Let me tell you, even with the somewhat biased survey, 60 percent of the marines said, This is a lousy idea. So why are we, at the end of the year, when we have no defense bill at all, going to get into some of these social agendas? I don't think this is what the American public expects Congress to be doing. I don't think we need an eclipse of reason.