[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 33 (Wednesday, March 15, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H992-H995]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT FOR DEFENSE, THE GLOBAL WAR
ON TERROR, AND HURRICANE RECOVERY, 2006
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 725 and rule
XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House
on the State of the Union for the consideration of the bill, H.R. 4939.
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In the Committee of the Whole
Accordingly, the House resolved itself into the Committee of the
Whole House on the State of the Union for the consideration of the bill
(H.R. 4939) making emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal
year ending September 30, 2006, and for other purposes, with Mr.
Gillmor in the chair.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to the rule, the bill is considered read the
first time.
The gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis) and the gentleman from
Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, today we turn our attention to
the fiscal year 2006 emergency supplemental, addressing the global war
on terror and the gulf coast disaster assistance.
The committee-recommended funding levels is $91.833 billion, which is
$400 million below the President's request.
The bill provides for $67.6 billion in support of Operation Iraqi
Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. The supplemental fully funds
the administration's request of $4.85 billion to train and equip
security forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The bill earmarks, I repeat, Mr. Chairman, the bill earmarks $850
billion over the President's request to upgrade Abrams tanks and
Bradley fighting vehicles. The committee is also earmaking, I repeat,
Mr. Chairman, earmarking an additional $480 million over the request
for newer, self-up-armored Humvees, for a total of $890 million of
earmarks.
The committee has fully funded the President's request to procure and
develop countermeasures to prevent IED attacks on our troops. The bill
also includes the enhanced $400,000 life insurance benefit for
servicemembers and $100,000 death gratuity for combat-related
fatalities.
The committee did not fund $1 billion of the request for various
construction projects related to security training activities in the
region because they were poorly defined and not well justified.
The committee did provide a five-fold increase for the Department of
Defense Inspector General to monitor war expenditures.
Under title II, the supplemental provides $19.1 billion for
hurricane-related disaster assistance, including $9.55 billion for
FEMA's disaster relief fund. The bill also provides $4.2 billion for
HUD community development block grants to address long-term recovery
and restoration of devastated areas.
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The bill also provides the requested amount of $1.46 billion for
various flood control projects and levee repairs by the U.S. Corps of
Engineers.
This legislation also requires FEMA to provide better reporting on
the expenditure of disaster funds and provides funding for the
Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security and the
Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute fraud cases.
Like most Members of the House, I have heard from many of my
constituents expressing strong concerns about the possibility of
foreign-owned companies managing U.S. ports. As a result of those
concerns, the House Appropriations Committee overwhelmingly, and in a
bipartisan fashion, adopted an amendment that prohibits the company,
Dubai Ports World, owned by one of the governing bodies of the United
Arab Emirates, from taking over the operation of any port facility in
the United States.
It was not my intention, Mr. Chairman, to have the committee rewrite
the Defense Production Act or change the Committee on Foreign
Investment in the United States, the CFIUS process. Those are very
complex policy decisions which rest primarily with the Financial
Services Committee. Additionally, the Homeland Security Committee, the
Armed Services Committee, the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and the
Committee on International Relations have a great deal of interest in
this matter.
The straightforward amendment adopted in our committee was crafted to
block only the Dubai Ports World deal. This is a national security
issue. This is a national security bill. Our goal is to ensure that
security of our ports is in America's hands.
During our debate, Mr. Chairman, on the supplemental, I fully expect
an amendment to strike this language from the bill. This striking
amendment, which will likely fail on a broad bipartisan basis, gives
our Members the opportunity to voice their strong opposition to the
port deal. It will also send a strong and unmistakable message that the
Congress and the American people stand united on the critical national
security issue that involves the ports.
Mr. Chairman, I urge an aye vote on the passage of this legislation.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the distinguished
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey), the ranking member of the
Foreign Operations Subcommittee.
Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this bill, and I am
pleased to have worked with Chairman Kolbe to develop the foreign
assistance portion of this measure. The bill cuts the amount requested
for international assistance by about $140 million from the
administration's request, and rescinds an additional $17 million in
previously appropriated funds that are no longer needed.
However, I do have concerns about what we have included and what we
have not included. I am particularly concerned about the lack of
funding in this bill for Afghanistan. During the chairman's recent
visit to Afghanistan, the ambassador and USAID staff outlined a need
for $600 million in FY 2006 supplemental funding to help address the
power and infrastructure needs in Afghanistan.
Our ambassador, the Afghan government, and provincial leaders all
agreed that progress on reconstruction and development was critical to
help consolidate the rule of law, curtail the influence of the Taliban
and al Qaeda operatives and combat opium poppy cultivation.
Yet, the President's request does not contain the $600 million that
Ambassador Neumann requested. It does not even contain the $407 million
that Secretary Rice requested in her submission to OMB. The President
requested just $62 million for assistance to Afghanistan in the
supplemental, one-tenth of what is needed. The committee further cut
this amount providing only $8 million for Afghanistan.
Now, I do understand that Chairman Kolbe and Chairman Lewis are
frustrated with the lack of response from the State Department on the
counternarcotics program in Afghanistan, and I share that frustration.
However, in this instance, I fear that we are cutting off our nose to
spite the State Department's face. I do not think this is a responsible
strategy. And before this bill is enacted, I hope we can find the means
to restore or even increase the
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administration's request for Afghanistan.
While I applaud the funding in this bill for Sudan and other
humanitarian needs in Africa, I was disappointed that the
administration did not seek robust funding for the fledgling democracy
in Liberia and the critical transition in Haiti. I am pleased that the
committee accepted an amendment by Representative Jackson to add $50
million in assistance to Liberia. It is important that the United
States send a strong message of support to Liberia, particularly as we
prepare to receive President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman to
be elected head of state in Africa.
This money will provide critical short-term support to meet refugee
and humanitarian needs, as well as to help stabilize Liberia in the
initial months of her administration. First Lady Laura Bush and
Secretary Rice pledged that the U.S. would stand by Liberia during this
period of transition, and I think our bill with the addition of $50
million in economic support funds does just that.
Finally, let me speak to the bulk of funding in the foreign
operations bill which is for Iraq. I am not convinced that providing
more money for Iraq will cure the problems for that country. But I will
support the additional funding because I think we owe our men and women
in uniform in Iraq every tool to achieve success.
I am dismayed that the committee defeated on a party-line vote,
however, my amendment to ensure proper oversight of these additional
resources. My amendment would have simply placed the additional funds
in the foreign operations title of the bill under the oversight of the
Special Inspector General for Iraq, as is the case for prior funds
appropriated for assistance to Iraq.
By voting against this commonsense amendment, the Republicans in our
committee sent the message to American taxpayers that while Congress
expects them to bear the burden of reconstructing Iraq, the Republicans
in Congress are not interested in ensuring that the money is accounted
for and effectively spent. I hope the issue is corrected when the bill
is taken up by the Senate. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young), my mentor, the former chairman of
the Appropriations Committee, who now chairs the Subcommittee on
National Security.
Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from
California for yielding me the time. I want to compliment him for
having produced this very important supplemental appropriations bill in
record time, and a very good bill.
I want to expand a little on what the chairman has said about this
bill. For example, we have increased the President's budget by $850
million to ensure that Army tracked combat vehicles such as Abrams
tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles will be upgraded, especially for
the units that will be rotating into Iraq in the coming months. An
increase of $360 million in equipment for the Marine Corps is provided
based on an assessment of their most pressing shortfalls. And $273.7
million additional is provided for Air Force procurement, including
additional predators, electronic countermeasures to protect our
aircraft, and funding to ensure the continuation of the C-17 production
line.
Very importantly, Mr. Chairman, the committee recommendation supports
and enhances the President's request for the National Guard and Reserve
forces. We have included in the war supplemental portion of this bill a
total of $3.57 billion for the Guard and Reserve, an increase of $320
million over the amounts requested by the President.
We have been able to add to the request the following items: $230
million for the Abrams Tank Integrated Management or AIM program, to
support fielding of National Guard combat brigades; $50 million for 42
Bradley fighting vehicles to complete two Army National Guard combat
brigades; and $40 million to cover shortfalls in the Army Reserve
personnel accounts.
All and all, Mr. Chairman, this is a good bill. It does speak to the
needs of those who are fighting the war. I highly recommend its
passage.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 10 minutes.
Mr. Chairman, as I said earlier, this bill is here because of a
massive failure of American leadership, which goes right to the very
top in the White House.
We are going to be spending $90 billion in this bill, most of which
goes for Iraq, a war which was engaged in by our country, initiated by
our country on the basis of bad information and manipulated
intelligence. After we were in the war, we were told by the
administration that Iraqi reconstruction would cost between $1 and $2
billion and could be financed by Iraqi oil revenues.
After the administration submitted its reconstruction request for
over $18 billion, Secretary Rumsfeld told us, ``We just had no idea of
how bad the Iraqi economy was.''
That certainly is an understatement.
The administration then claimed that we would be greeted as
liberators and that 6 months after the invasion, we could begin
withdrawing troops. Since then, the insurgency has exploded. We have
lost over 2,300 U.S. troops who have been killed. Thousands have been
injured. Many more Iraqis have been killed and a continuing U.S. troop
deployment in Iraq of around 130,000, down only slightly from the
150,000 in the year before.
We have had a failure to plan for adequately equipping our troops
with armor. And as a result, our troops have been rummaging for scrap
metal from garbage dumps and they have had to deal with a myriad of
other equipment shortages.
Then we have seen the disgraceful stories about Abu Ghraib. We have
seen stories about torture all being done in the name of the United
States, in the name of every citizen of this country. We have reports
that more than 100 people have died in custody, and then we have
reports that the administration is spying on Americans and
eavesdropping on Americans. I want to make it clear, I want our
government to eavesdrop on every person that it needs to eavesdrop on
in order to protect this country, but I want it done in a way which is
constitutional, and in a way which is in conformance with the law, not
outside the law, and right now that is not the case.
So this bill comes before us with the United States divided and with
the American people confused about what our mission is, what our
purpose is, and what our plans are. And now we are asked to provide
this additional money.
I will vote for this bill because, while I have grave misgivings
about the war, and while I believe that Mr. Rumsfeld should have
resigned a long time ago, I intend to support whatever money is
necessary in order to support our troops. But having said that, let me
just make another observation. We are going to be spending $91 billion.
$19 billion is for Katrina. Over almost $70 billion is for Iraq. And I
am told that those funds will be expended at a rate of about $6.8
billion a month. And yet we are going to be squabbling over the next 2
days over a fraction of that amount that some of us believe should be
used to provide heating for our elderly, education for our kids, and
medical care for our veterans.
Three years after this war began, does anybody here really believe
the President of the United States when he tells us that this is all
about bringing democracy and freedom to Iraq? $400 billion and then
some later, does anybody believe that Congress did the right thing when
this Congress handed a blank check to the administration? After more
than 17,000 Americans wounded in Iraq, does anyone think Congress was
right to sit on its hands when it was clear that this White House and
the civilian leadership at the Pentagon did not have the first clue
about what they were doing?
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Mr. Chairman, in addition to the divisions which we face on Iraq, we
face some other problems with this bill.
This bill, for instance, contains Mr. Lewis' amendment shutting off
and shutting down the ports transaction involving Dubai. At the same
time, however, the committee blocked the Sabo amendment which would
have created a process which would have guaranteed that our government
would know each and every time such a transaction was being
contemplated. Without the Sabo
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amendment, we are still in a position where notice to the American
government of any such transaction is optional. We do not believe on
this side of the aisle it ought to be optional.
Secondly, the committee blocked efforts, again by Mr. Sabo, to add
$3.4 billion for crucially needed funding to strengthen port security
and border security.
The committee cut back my amendment to provide $1 billion to help
low-income Americans pay for higher energy prices which are in large
measure arising today because of our misadventures in Iraq. The
committee cut back that effort to $750 million with no guarantee that a
single dollar of that will be provided to people who need it this year.
Then the committee declined to support a provision by Mr. Berry which
would have repaired the prescription drug plan that has now gone into
effect and which would have at least given seniors more time to sort
out their confusion before they have to commit themselves to signing up
for one plan or another.
The committee also refused to adopt, well, to save time, I will skip
the other three points that I think were important to discuss, but let
me simply say this, Mr. Chairman. There will be a lot of debate on this
bill over the next 2 days, and a lot of it will be focused on Iraq. But
I think it is important for each and every American to understand and
it is important for each and every man and woman representing this
country in uniform to understand that our divisions about the
advisability of the war and about what ought to happen next in that war
have nothing whatsoever to do with our feelings for those who wear the
uniform of the United States and are presently engaged in this contest.
They have done every possible thing that could be asked of them. We owe
them our gratitude for their sense of sacrifice, their willingness to
answer the call of their country, and I do not think that turmoil over
the advisability of the war ought to be mistaken for disagreement that
we owe a debt of obligation to each and every person who is fighting in
that war.
I wish we had a similar sense of self-sacrifice on the part of
persons who are not participating in that war. It sometimes seems that
the only people who are being asked to sacrifice are military families.
We are telling the rest of the country, while some folks are off to
war, ``Do not worry, folks, we are going to give you a nice fat tax
cut, and people who make $1 million a year are going to get $110,000
tax cut.'' No sense of self-sacrifice there.
So, Mr. Speaker, I intend to vote for this bill in the end, but we
could have adopted a number of amendments which would have made this a
much more balanced product, and I would hope that as we go through the
debate that we will find a way to at least address some of the issues
which we failed to address when the committee dealt with the bill last
week.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, I am happy to yield 4 minutes
to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers), the chairman of the
Homeland Security Subcommittee.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from
California for yielding the time and, more importantly, for ushering
out this important bill in short time and in good order, and I urge my
colleagues to support this supplemental appropriations for the global
war on terror and hurricane recovery.
Mr. Chairman, without a doubt, Hurricane Katrina was the worst
natural disaster the Nation has ever seen, covering more than 93,000
square miles, claiming over 1,300 lives. Nearly 7 months after
landfall, Hurricane Katrina continues to consume us as a Nation, both
with recovery and rebuilding, as well as questioning what went wrong
and why.
The bill before us today fully funds the ongoing work of FEMA. Since
Katrina made landfall, and including the $9.5 billion in this bill, the
Congress has provided more than $44.5 billion in supplemental funds for
Gulf coast recovery just through the Disaster Relief Fund. That is a
staggering sum of money, Mr. Chairman, and one that reflects our
commitment to help our Nation recover from the devastation of the 2005
hurricane season.
Mr. Chairman, we are a little more than 2 months away from the 2006
hurricane season. I do not think that is a particularly welcome
observation for those still recovering from the 2005 season.
I am pleased that this bill includes several important programs that
will help us prepare. One of the lessons learned, Mr. Chairman, in
Katrina was the importance of early warning and communications. The
bill before us today includes $70 million to allow FEMA to improve
public alert, warning and communications systems.
The Bipartisan Committee on Hurricane Katrina and the White House's
``Lessons Learned'' identified critical failures in FEMA's ability to
manage its workload. To address some of those concerns, this bill
includes $5 million to hire additional personnel for logistics
management, inventory management, and contract management. With these
additional staff on board before the 2006 hurricane season begins, FEMA
will be better prepared to position critical assets, as well as plan
for short-term recovery operations such as debris removal and housing.
Katrina also showed us that much work remains on both the national
response plan and the national incident management system. This bill
includes $5 million to immediately begin a review of those two
important documents.
Mr. Chairman, I am also pleased this bill includes funds for ongoing
work of the Coast Guard as it relates to the war on terror and
addresses an unexpected shortfall within the Secret Service based on
increased protective operations driven by the latest terrorist tactics
and the current threat environment.
As reported by the full committee, this bill is free of extraneous
matters, and I believe it is important that we maintain that clean bill
of health. I suspect there will be attempts to add additional funds to
areas deemed critical such as port security, border and immigration
security, nuclear non-proliferation, first responders and aviation
security. I would remind my colleagues that the 2007 appropriations
cycle is already upon us. I believe debate on these very important
issues should be reserved and considered within the context of the
regular appropriations cycle in which we are engaged even now.
I also understand there may be attempts to take funds from the
Disaster Relief Fund and use them for other purposes. I would urge my
colleagues to oppose those attempts.
I urge, Mr. Chairman, all of us to support this bill.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 7 minutes to the gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Moran).
Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Mr. Chairman, I thank my good friend the
distinguished minority leader of the House Appropriations Committee.
Mr. Chairman, a lot of us on this side and virtually everyone on the
other side are going to vote for this bill, but we should do so with
considerable reservations.
First of all, two-thirds of it goes to fund the Iraq War; even
though, after 4 years, there is still no end in sight. You wonder if
this is not more good money going after bad or at least after a mission
that has yet to be defined.
We will now have spent $490 billion from fiscal year 2001 through
fiscal year 2007. Mr. Chairman, the cost of the entire Vietnam War,
adjusted for inflation, was exactly the same cost that we have now
appropriated.
Mr. Chairman, the most credible poll that was just taken showed that
three-quarters of the American troops believe that we should withdraw
within the year, and over half said it should be within 6 months.
Even more telling, a poll that was conducted on January 28 of this
year among Iraqi citizens showed that 82 percent of Sunnis and 69
percent of Shi'a want U.S. troops withdrawn immediately. These are the
people that we are trying to save for democracy, and in fact, the
majority of both Shi'a and Sunnis believe that the U.S. will hurt, that
is their word ``hurt,'' Iraq over the next 5 years unless it withdraws
immediately. Mr. Chairman, we need an exit strategy that is going to
work and that has the support of the people we're trying to help.
Now the other reservation we have is over the way in which this money
is being spent. We are told that about $8.8
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billion has been used inappropriately of Iraqi reconstruction funds
that we appropriated. It is unaccounted for, according to the Inspector
General in Iraq. There are 50 investigations going on. A Halliburton
subsidiary just acknowledged, admitted, that they overcharged the
government by $63 million for a contract.
We need a Truman Committee-type investigation. It saved the American
taxpayer tens of billions of dollars in the 1940's. It was rejected in
the full committee, but it should be made part of this bill.
Now another major part of this bill deals with Hurricane Katrina. I
was just down there in Louisiana, Mr. Chairman, on my own tab, for what
it is worth what I learned about the contracting process down there is
just stunning. It makes you wonder whether we should be providing any
money unless we can get a handle over the way the money is spent.
Let me give you a thinly-veiled hypothetical example. One contract,
for example, we give it to a prime contractor to fix roofs for $25,000
a roof. Eighty percent of it goes to a subcontractor, then 60 percent
to another subcontractor, to another subcontractor, and, finally, it
gets down to a company that actually puts the roof on for $1,200 a
roof. You do the math, Mr. Chairman. Virtually all of the money goes to
these contractors who never banged a hammer on a nail, and you know how
we found out about it? Because the actual undocumented aliens who did
the work contacted a FEMA person on the field, wondering how they were
going to get paid. You go figure, Mr. Chairman.
Another contract went for debris removal, prime contractor,
subcontractor, down again through reiterations, finally goes to the
company that is already doing the very work for the City of New Orleans
for a fraction of the cost but they never saw 90 percent of the money.
These are things a Truman Committee could look into and fix.
Beyond the need for more oversight on the contracting process of the
Federal Government, Mr. Chairman, we have some other issues that should
have been part of this bill. The members of the full committee in the
last omnibus appropriations conference had put the bill to bed,
finished it up, when the majority leader of the Senate came over and
added 45 pages providing liability exemption for drug companies.
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We wanted to rectify that by striking the language we never approved.
That was not done.
The third issue that we debated in full committee, and unfortunately
it lost, was to give Medicare recipients an extra 7 months within which
to make a decision as to whether to participate in Medicare part D. If
Medicare senior citizens don't sign up by May 15, they have to then
wait for another 7 months and they will pay an extra 1 percent a month.
That means there will be a tax, if you will, a penalty of 7 percent for
the rest of their lives applied to their insurance premiums.
It is too confusing a program. They need more time to decide. We
ought to give them another 7-month extension so that they can make that
decision by the end of this calendar year. If we don't ten million
seniors will pay this penalty for the rest of their lives.
Mr. Chairman, there are so many other issues in this bill that we
could discuss. Some of them will be discussed. But the bottom line is
that it is an awful lot of money. It is the largest supplemental we
have ever passed in this body. The largest appropriation as a
supplemental ever considered. We have to provide it, but we ought to
show more scrutiny towards the way the money is being spent.
And finally, Mr. Chairman, there is a provision here with regard to
Dubai Ports World attempted purchase of American ports. I know I am in
the distinct minority. It was a 62-2 vote, and I was one of the two
that opposed this language. We have to identify our friends, and Dubai
is our friend. The fact is that the Homeland Security Secretary said if
this deal goes through it will strengthen port security, yet we ignore
that information as well as the reality of the fact that Dubai is doing
everything to be a bridge to the moderate Arab world. We blew up that
bridge in committee, as far as I am concerned, Mr. Chairman, and I
would hope we will try to rectify some of that damage.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do
now rise.
The motion was agreed to.
Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Mr.
Simpson) having assumed the chair, Mr. Gillmor, Chairman of the
Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, reported that
that Committee, having had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4939)
making emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending
September 30, 2006, and for other purposes, had come to no resolution
thereon.
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