[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 88 (Wednesday, June 23, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7243-S7244]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I have come to the floor because I am 
worried about the Defense appropriations bill. This bill that has been 
prepared by primarily Sid Ashworth and Charlie Houy of our Defense 
Subcommittee, under the direction of my cochairman Dan Inouye and 
myself, was considered by the Subcommittee on Defense Appropriations 
and reported to the full committee in 17 minutes. We took it to the 
full committee and we had a debate on that bill. It was reported to the 
floor in 25 minutes.
  The reason for that is, as we all know, there is in this bill an 
amount of

[[Page S7244]]

$25 billion requested by the President for a reserve for Iraq and 
Afghanistan and the war on terror. We know if there is a development in 
Iraq, in particular, which will give rise to a need for money, this 
bill must become law before we leave for the conventions in August, or 
really late July, before the August recess.
  Some of us in this body have served overseas, particularly in 
wartime. It was my privilege to do that in World War II. I was thinking 
just now about what is going on here on the floor, and how I used to 
feel as a young man when we were told our supplies had not come over 
the hump into China, that we were going to have to reduce our rations, 
maybe live a little more on local food than on the food we brought into 
China from a long distance from our country. I thought about the time 
Colin Powell, as a young assistant to the then-head of the National 
Security Council, came before a Senate subcommittee on appropriations, 
and he told us at the time, when he was a young captain in Cambodia, he 
had the duty to take out a whole Vietnamese battalion, and the U.S. 
troops along with him had to go into Cambodia on a drop mission. They 
parachuted in. They were given a 2-week supply of food. He told us when 
you get up on that 14th day and open up the last bit of your rations, 
that is when you start thinking about the people who are in Washington 
that you trust. That is when you start thinking about whether the 
people who run the Government know what they are doing when they send 
you into foreign countries, like Cambodia, in wartime.
  As I speak now, there are men and women in the armed services in our 
U.S. uniform in 120 countries. Managing the Department of Defense is an 
overwhelming job right now. The money we are spending is enormous, but 
the cause we are on is just. Whether you feel it is just or not, the 
problem is, we now know that when we leave for the conventions, there 
is a great possibility the Department of Defense and Commander in Chief 
will have to have more money available than is currently available in 
fiscal year 2004. Our committee, the Defense Appropriations 
Subcommittee, and the Appropriations Committee, has worked long hours 
to bring this bill before the Senate so we can pass it before we leave 
on this recess for the Fourth of July, and be able to come back and be 
ready to conference it, because staff conferences during the recess, 
and bring it back to the floor so both the House and the Senate can 
pass the bill and get it to the President and have it become law before 
we leave before the end of July.

  I hear a lot of comments from people about the problem of the debt 
ceiling. I have checked and, in all probability, we will reach the debt 
ceiling in August. There is a debate on how to handle that. The House 
has decided to put it in the Appropriations bill, and I have been 
asked, as manager of the bill, to commit that I will not bring this 
bill back from conference with a debt ceiling in it. I can make no such 
commitment. Neither the Senator from Hawaii nor I can make that 
commitment. We are committed to doing our job as Senators, carrying out 
our oath to support and defend the Constitution and the people who 
support the Constitution.
  I, for one, am getting a little impatient about getting this bill 
done. The current bill, I was told, would be done last night, and we 
would be on our bill now. We are not on the Defense bill now. We should 
be on the Defense appropriations bill now.
  I hope and pray every Senator in this body will search his soul about 
delaying this bill, because I mean what I say: there is no possibility 
of getting this bill to the President, in my judgment, in a matter of 
10 days after we get back unless we pass it now, and the President has 
time to go through the bill to determine if he is going to sign it.
  I implore the Senate to finish this bill. Either the Senator from 
Hawaii or I have been chairman of the Defense Subcommittee since 1981. 
We have never found a situation where we would even consider cloture on 
the Defense appropriations bill.
  I cannot imagine a Member of this Senate voting against cloture on an 
appropriations bill for defense when there is a war going on.
  I say to the Senate, it is time to come to our senses and get this 
authorization bill done tonight so we can get on the appropriations 
bill tonight and finish it tomorrow or, at the latest, Friday morning. 
If we can get this bill through the subcommittee in 17 minutes and 25 
minutes in the full committee, this Senate can get through this bill in 
36 hours.
  I guarantee, if there is any thought of delay, we will stay in 
session 36 hours because I am going to see to it this bill is passed 
and goes to the President this week. Some people say it is not going to 
happen, but if I have to embarrass every Member of the Senate to get it 
done, I am going to do it. This bill must be passed. We are at war. We 
are at war.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum all be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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