[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 127 (Tuesday, September 13, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 13, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
 NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 1995 AND MILITARY 
 CONSTRUCTION AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 1995--CONFERENCE REPORT

  The Senate continued with the consideration of the conference report.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who seeks recognition?
  Mr. D'AMATO. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GRAMM. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lieberman). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. GRAMM. Mr. President, I rise today to explain why I am going to 
vote against the Defense authorization conference report.
  I have served in Congress for 15 years and I have always considered 
myself a very strong supporter of national defense. My dad was a 
sergeant in the Army. I was born at Fort Benning, GA. I have always 
believed in a strong defense.
  The world has changed dramatically over the last 15 years. We have 
won the cold war, the Berlin Wall has come down, Eastern Europe has 
been liberated, and the Soviet Union has been transformed. All of those 
things were done because America was strong. Even today, in a world 
where the lion and the lamb are about to lie down together, it is very 
important that the United States of America be the lion.
  I have strongly supported national defense over the years, but this 
will be the second year in a row that I vote against the Defense 
Authorization Act. I have done this because I cannot remain silent when 
we continue the process of tearing down the greatest defense that the 
world has ever known.
  I do not believe that you can justify what we are doing in the way of 
defense cuts, given the world that we live in. At the very moment when 
the President is talking about military intervention in Haiti, at a 
time when we are actually involved in military support activities in 
Bosnia, at a time when we still are facing a potential confrontation 
with North Korea over nuclear weapons development, I do not believe 
that you can justify the cuts in defense that we are making in this 
authorization bill.
  I think even more difficult to justify is the fact that we are 
spending every penny that we are saving by cutting defense. If we need 
this money in the future to rebuild defense, we will not be able to get 
it back because it has already been spent on social programs.
  I have one chart here. I know my colleagues want to go ahead and vote 
on this bill, so I will explain the problem very simply by asking 
people to look at this chart, which shows defense outlays in real 
inflation adjusted dollars since 1986. What has happened to defense 
spending since 1986, with the exception of the gulf war, which is this 
little peak here, is that defense spending in real dollars has fallen 
like a rock.

  To give you an idea of the problem, this year we are building 4 Navy 
ships and we are building 28 new fixed-wing combat aircraft, and that 
is it. Meanwhile, many of our most important modernization programs 
have been called into question as the Pentagon has finally admitted 
that the Bottom-Up Review is grossly underfunded. Ten modernization 
programs, from the new F-22 Air Force fighter plane, which is not 
scheduled to come into the force until the turn of the century, to the 
V-22, which will replace the aging CH-46 troop-carrying helicopter, are 
in the process of being reviewed and are at serious risk of being 
dismantled.
  When America needs its military forces in the future, I want to be 
sure that I can say that I raised an alarm; that I said I thought we 
were making a mistake. I do not believe that you can justify this 
dramatic reduction in real defense spending based on what we see in the 
world in which we live.
  But, Mr. President, the problem is greater than what the numbers 
show. These numbers give a false picture because much of what we are 
spending defense money on is not for defense. We have in the bill 
before us $2.2 billion of expenditures for what is called defense 
technology conversion and reinvestment. But actually, this money is for 
an elaborate industrial policy where Defense Department money is used 
by the Clinton administration to try to dictate investment patterns in 
American business.
  Who could possibly believe that the way to transform defense industry 
to civilian activity is to have the Federal Government tell them how to 
do it? Who could possibly believe that you help defense industry find 
the capacity to create jobs in the private sector of the economy by 
giving them Government subsidies?
  We have in this bill $5.5 billion of expenditures on environmental 
programs. We have in this bill numerous programs that basically have 
nothing to do with national defense.
  I want to briefly alert my colleagues to several points.
  No. 1, we are not building defense down. This is not an orderly 
reduction justified by the end of the cold war. We have already 
undertaken and completed that process. What we are doing now is tearing 
defense down to free up money, every penny of which is being spent on 
social programs.
  No. 2, we are pirating defense spending by taking money that is 
allocated to the defense budget and spending that money on everything 
from the environment to health care to industrial policy.
  Mr. President, I am concerned that unless this process is reversed, 
we are going to reach a point where our vital national interests are at 
stake and the Defense Department is going to be called on to do jobs 
that it will find difficult to do. I am concerned that if we do not 
continue our modernization program, we are not going to keep the 
technological edge that was so important in saving American lives in 
the gulf war. And, finally, I am concerned that, if these kinds of cuts 
continue, we are going to destroy our capacity to keep the finest young 
men and women who have ever worn the uniform of this country in the 
service.
  I am very concerned about what we are doing to defense. It is because 
I support a strong defense that I am going to vote against this bill.
  I am going to continue to speak out on this issue. We cannot justify 
the cuts that we are making in defense. We certainly cannot justify 
them when every penny we are saving is being spent on social programs.

                          ____________________