[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 103 (Thursday, July 22, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8614-S8616]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2005--CONFERENCE REPORT

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following the 
granting of this request, the official Senate copy of the Defense 
appropriations conference report having been presented to the desk, the 
Senate proceed to 2 hours for debate only, with 1 hour equally divided 
between the chairman and ranking member of the committee and 1 hour 
equally divided between Senator McCain and Senator Inouye; provided 
further that following that time the Senate proceed to a vote on 
adoption of the Defense appropriations conference report with no 
intervening action or debate and points of order waived; further, that 
when the Senate receives the official papers from the House, the vote 
on passage appear at the appropriate place in the Record following the 
receipt of those papers; and, finally, this agreement is null and void 
if the House does not agree to the conference report.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, if all goes 
well, Members will not use the full 2 hours. This, I think, is the only 
remaining vote Members would have to worry about tonight unless 
something untoward happens. Is that right?
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, we have several business items, one of 
which has Transportation, Coast Guard, and other issues. The assistant 
Democratic leader is right with his implication that this is going to 
be in all likelihood the only rollcall vote. It is absolutely critical 
that Members understand we have other items we have to address tonight. 
We need to do that, and finish with this vote, if all goes well.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, if everything goes well, Members may have a 
vote on this very important conference report.
  There is no objection on this side.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Who yields time?
  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, after the vote on the Defense 
appropriations, will there be opportunities for Senators to speak on 
other subjects?
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, there will be. We will be happy to be here 
through the night for morning business--at some reasonable hour, I 
hope. We will be here for a while.
  Mr. DAYTON. I thank the majority leader.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the 
     two Houses on the amendment of the Senate to the bill (H.R. 
     4613) ``making appropriations for the Department of Defense 
     for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2005, and for other 
     purposes,'' having met, have agreed that the House recede 
     from its disagreement of the amendment of the Senate, and 
     agree to the same with an amendment, and the Senate agree to 
     the same.
       Signed by all of the conferees on the part of both Houses.

  (The conference report is printed in the House proceedings in the 
Congressional Record of Tuesday, July 20, 2004 (No. 101--Book II).)
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Alaska.
  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, our Appropriations Committee is pleased 
to present to the Senate the Defense Appropriations Conference Report 
for the Fiscal Year 2005. I believe passage of this measure today 
represents the earliest date the Defense bill has ever been sent to the 
President for signing.
  This conference report symbolizes a balanced approach to fulfilling 
the financial needs for the Department for the fiscal year 2005.
  It provides $416.2 billion in new discretionary spending authority 
for the Department of Defense. This amount includes $25 million in 
emergency spending requested by the President for the fiscal year 2005 
costs associated with the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. That 
provision becomes effective immediately upon the signing of this bill 
by the President.
  The conference report fully funds key readiness programs critical to 
the global war on terrorism such as land forces training, helicopter 
flying hours, ship steaming days, and spare parts.
  It fully funds the 3.5 percent military pay raise proposed in the 
President's budget, and increases levels for basic allowance for 
housing, eliminating service members' average out-of-pocket housing 
from 3.5 percent to zero in 2005.
  It provides $1.5 billion above the President's budget request for 
Army and Marine Corps recapitalization of combat and tactical vehicles, 
helicopters, and ammunition, and provides a total of $18.2 billion for 
the Defense Health Program, an increase of $2.5 billion over the fiscal 
year 2004 enacted level.
  I urge all Members to support the men and women in uniform who risk 
their lives for our country each day by voting for this measure.
  I would like to thank Larry Lanzillota, the Acting Department of 
Defense Comptroller, for his hard work, dedication, and diligence 
throughout the past year. He has done a superb job and we wish him 
success in his future endeavors.
  I also thank my cochairman, Senator Inouye, for his support and 
valuable counsel, and recognize him for any statement he wishes to 
make.
  I wish to put in the Record the names of the diligent staff members 
who have worked on this bill night and day to be able to present it to 
the Senate at this time, as follows:
  Charlie Houy, Betsy Schmid, Nicole DiResta, Sid Ashworth, Jennifer 
Chartrand, Kraig Siracuse, Tom Hawkins, Kate Kaufer, Lesley Kalan, 
Alycia Farrell, Brian Potts, Brian Wilson, Janelle Treon, and Mazie 
Mattson.
  I yield to my friend from Hawaii, if he wishes to make an opening 
statement.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Hawaii.
  Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I rise today to address the Defense 
appropriations conference report that passed the House earlier today.
  First, I wish to commend my chairman, Senator Stevens, and his 
capable staff for this agreement.
  The proposals provided by the conference report represent a careful 
balance between the recommendations of each body. Moreover, it provides 
what the Defense Department needs for the coming year.
  This is a good bill. It represents a fair compromise. It is the 
product of a lot of hard work by the chairman and members of the 
committee. I recommend all my colleagues support it.
   Let me highlight just a couple of key items in this measure.
   In meeting the conference committee priorities, the bill supports 
the men and women in uniform. It approves a 3.5 percent pay raise for 
them. It funds health care requirements to include benefits that are 
authorized for our guard and reserve forces. And, most important in 
this very challenging time, it provides significant increases for force 
protection--specifically up armored ``humvees'', body armor, better 
helmets, armor plating for other vehicles and new technology to try and 
counter improvised explosive devices.
   The bill provides substantial resources to enhance investment 
programs in the Defense Department to support key programs like the V-
22, the F-22, the new DDX destroyer, the littoral combat ship, missile 
defense and significant increases in Army equipment for Stryker combat 
vehicles, trucks, and helicopters.
   But, I want to inform my colleagues that this bill does not rubber 
stamp the administration's desires. It reduces many programs for which 
insufficient justification has been provided. While we recognize that 
the country needs to continue to enhance its space capabilities, 
members of the Appropriations Committee have learned the hard way that 
improvements must be developed prudently. It is a waste of resources to 
try and accelerate complex new technologies in the manner recommended 
by civilian officials in the Defense Department.
   The bill also provides $25 billion in emergency spending, the amount 
requested, but it allocates the funds to meet the priorities and needs 
of the individual military departments, not the

[[Page S8615]]

blank check sought by the administration. It provides adequate 
safeguards on these funds to ensure proper congressional oversight and 
requires stringent reporting requirements on its use.
   I point out also that there are a few items in here that do not fall 
under the jurisdiction of the Defense Subcommittee. I will defer to 
others to speak to those.
   This is a good bill. It represents a fair compromise. It is the 
product of a lot of hard work by the Chairman and Members of the 
committee. I encourage all my colleagues to support it.
  I reserve the remainder of my time.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore (Mr. Chambliss). Who yields time?
  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, on behalf of my colleague from Hawaii, I 
reserve the remainder of our time. Senator Byrd has his time, Senator 
McCain will have his time, and we will withhold our time.
  Our time is reserved?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Yes.
  Who yields time?
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, how much time do I have?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator has 30 minutes.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I yield such time as I may require from my 
allotted time.
  Yesterday, the General Accounting Office released a shocking report 
about the state of funding for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. 
Simply put, our troops are running out of money. But the White House 
denies that there is a problem.
  The findings in the General Accounting Office report are alarming. 
The Army is overspending its fiscal year 2004 operations in maintenance 
funds to the tune of $10.2 billion. The Air Force urgently needs 
another $1.4 billion this fiscal year, and the Marines are short by 
$500 million. Our military is cutting back on training at the same time 
that retired service members are being pressed back into uniform to be 
sent overseas. These budget problems are being compounded by the fact 
that the White House planned on having only 99,000 troops in Iraq by 
this point instead of the 140,000 troops we will have there for the 
foreseeable future. This is the most astounding evidence to date that 
the administration has fundamentally mismanaged the financing for the 
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The President did not bother to put a 
single dime, not one thin dime, in his February budget request for 
these wars. He insisted that more funding would not be needed until 
January 2005.
  Even when the administration flip-flopped and came to Congress on May 
13, 2004, to ask for a $25 billion emergency reserve fund, top 
administration officials denied that there was an urgent need for more 
funds to support our troops in the field. Deputy Defense Secretary 
Wolfowitz described the $25 billion which is contained in the 
conference report of the Defense appropriations bill now before the 
Senate as an insurance plan. That is the way Mr. Wolfowitz described 
it. Secretary Wolfowitz stated in his testimony to the Armed Services 
Committee that our troops would not run out of funds until February or 
March 2005.
  I didn't buy that line. The administration has fallen down on the job 
in budgeting for these wars, and his budget projections simply are not 
to be trusted. I say ``these wars'' because we are fighting two wars, 
one war in Afghanistan, which is the result of the al-Qaida attack upon 
the United States on September 11, 2001. That was an attack upon the 
United States by those individuals who had hijacked planes and flown 
them into the World Trade Towers, into the Pentagon, and into the field 
in Pennsylvania. That was one war. I supported Mr. Bush on that war. I 
support that war today.
  The second war is the Bush war, the war that is of Mr. Bush and his 
ring of people around him in the White House. That is the Bush war. 
That was an attack upon a sovereign nation which had not provoked us, 
which had not attacked us. That was an attack on a nation in support of 
the Bush doctrine of preemption. I did not support that war then, and I 
do not support it today.

  I did not buy that line. The administration has fallen down on the 
job of budgeting for these wars, and its budget projections simply are 
not to be trusted. It should have been clear to anyone who has picked 
up a newspaper in the last 6 months that our troops were beginning to 
run low on funds, but the administration sent witnesses bearing only 
rosy scenarios.
  To add insult to injury, the White House asked for a $25 billion 
blank check on the heels of Bob Woodward's revelations in his book, 
``Plan of Attack,'' about the Pentagon hiding from Congress $700 
million in spending to prepare for war in Iraq. This was an astounding 
request.
  Thankfully, Congress has seen through the administration's double 
dealing on funding our troops. I thank the chairman of the 
Appropriations Committee, Senator Ted Stevens, and his colleague, the 
ranking member of the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, Senator 
Daniel Inouye, for working to pierce the fog of rhetoric to reshape 
this $25 billion reserve fund to best help our troops while protecting 
the constitutional prerogatives of Congress.
  Instead of being a $25 billion blank check, $23 billion of these 
funds--that is, 92 percent--is made available for regular 
appropriations accounts. This means that Congress will be better able 
to track how these additional funds are used. In addition, the $25 
billion in funding will be available for our troops as soon as this 
bill is signed into law. They will not have to wait until October 1 to 
purchase the critical equipment our troops need to survive in the 
combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. Again, I thank Senator Stevens 
and Senator Inouye for working with me to promote fiscal responsibility 
and accountability for how these funds are to be used.
  Despite the improvements made to the administration's request for 
funding for the war, I continue to have serious concerns about the 
direction of the so-called peacetime defense budget; that is, the huge 
amount of funds not related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This 
bill contains $391.2 billion for the Pentagon, not including $25 
billion for the cost of the wars. That is a massive increase over the 
$287.1 billion appropriated for the Pentagon as recently as fiscal year 
2001.
  The administration claims this explosion in defense spending is 
necessary to transform our military into a faster, lighter, and 
stronger fighting force. But today's Los Angeles Times states that the 
Army is delaying by 2 years the launch of its first modernized unit 
that is supposed to be the centerpiece of this defense transformation 
effort.
  In this age of sky-high deficits, could it be that we are getting 
less bang for more bucks? How else can the administration explain a 
stalled transformation effort when defense spending has risen 36 
percent in 4 years? If this rate of growth continues, this country will 
soon be spending half a trillion per year on the defense establishment, 
with no assurance that those funds are being well spent.
  The Pentagon's accounting systems are a mess, an absolute mess. 
Despite Secretary Rumsfeld's promise to me at his confirmation hearing 
in January 2001 to get this problem fixed, the General Accounting 
Office has recently issued serious warnings that his accounting reform 
effort is headed down the wrong track.
  In fact, this Defense appropriations bill cuts funds from this 
accounting reform effort precisely because the Defense Department's 
program to fix its accounting systems is underperforming. Tens of 
millions of taxpayer dollars that were supposed to have been put to use 
in establishing a robust system of financial accountability remain 
unspent. This Congress made the wise decision not to throw more money 
at a problem that is not being fixed. When Secretary Rumsfeld gets his 
accounting reform program back on its feet, I will be the first Senator 
in line to support all necessary funds for that purpose.
  Senators should also realize this Defense appropriations bill brings 
back from conference something that was never included in the Senate-
passed bill and something that was never included in the House-passed 
bill. It includes a deeming resolution to increase the annual 
discretionary spending limit to $821.9 billion for the fiscal year 
2005.
  The failure of this Congress to pass its annual budget has led to 
this move to include a deeming resolution in the

[[Page S8616]]

Defense appropriations bill, signaling the complete breakdown in this 
year's budget process.
  Setting aside the fact that this provision violates rule XXVIII of 
the Standing Rules of the Senate, Senators should know that this 
deeming resolution authorizes $11 billion less than what the 
Congressional Budget Office says is necessary to maintain current 
services, adjusted for inflation. That $11 billion is needed to 
maintain services to our veterans, fund health care and education 
programs for our seniors and our youth, and maintain our mass transit 
and highway programs.
  In a time of war, each dollar devoted to our military must be put to 
full use. No matter how many additional hundreds of billions Congress 
may approve for the Pentagon, defense spending without accountability 
ultimately hurts our troops in the field.
  Each dollar that is spent on wasteful contracts, each dollar that is 
lost in an accounting maze, is one less dollar for our troops to buy 
ammunition, to buy fuel, to buy body armor. There must also be a budget 
so Congress can know the spending plan for our troops on the 
battlefield will be supported in the coming months and years.
  The administration would do well to listen--just to listen; get off 
its high horse, swallow its false pride, and listen--to this 
commonsense message. Stop the budget gamesmanship that only endangers 
the lives of our fighting men and women. Enough of the political 
posturing that denies that our military in the field may have urgent 
needs. The President of the United States must take responsibility for 
the fiscal mess that he has created.
  Mr. President, I reserve the remainder of my time.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Who yields time?
  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time 
during this quorum call be charged against the time of the Senator from 
Hawaii and my time.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. STEVENS. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.