[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 20, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H4246-H4253]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2007

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 877 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. 5631.
  The Chair designates the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Camp) as 
chairman of the Committee of the Whole, and requests the gentleman from 
Ohio (Mr. Gillmor) to assume the chair temporarily.

                              {time}  1434


                     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. 5631) making appropriations for the Department of Defense for the 
fiscal year ending September 30, 2007, and for other purposes, with Mr. 
Gillmor (Acting Chairman) in the chair.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The Acting CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to the rule, the bill is considered 
read the first time.
  The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) and the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha) each will control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Chairman, today I am proud to present the fiscal year 2007 
defense appropriations bill. I would say to the Members that it is a 
bill that is $4 billion less than was requested by the administration 
because of our 302(b) allocation. The subcommittee worked extremely 
hard with great diligence to make up the difference in some creative 
ways. It is a good bill that has been discussed many, many times on the 
floor already as we considered the rule. We will possibly get into some 
more detail during the amending process. But at this point I am 
prepared to reserve my time.

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  I do have two requests for time briefly, but I will reserve my time 
right now.
  Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Chairman, I am prepared to yield back the balance of 
my time so we can get right to the amendment process so they can strike 
the last word. I am prepared to yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I would say to the gentleman, I 
do have one request for a time for 2 minutes and I will yield.
  Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume. And before I yield to Mr. Tiahrt, I wanted to say that the 
subcommittee has worked extremely well together in creating a 
nonpartisan bill, strictly no politics in this bill. And I wanted to 
call attention specifically to Representative Martin Sabo who has been 
a longtime member of this subcommittee, who was one of the most 
thoughtful members of the subcommittee and is really valuable to the 
work that we do.
  Mr. Sabo, as we all know, is leaving the Congress at the end of this 
term; and he will be missed seriously, especially by the members of 
this subcommittee. I wanted to call attention to the fact that Mr. Sabo 
has made a great contribution to the work of this subcommittee.
  I yield 2 minutes to a member of the subcommittee, the gentleman from 
Kansas (Mr. Tiahrt).
  Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Chairman, I wanted to rise today for two reasons, one 
is to commend Chairman Lewis and the Appropriations Committee for 
completing their work on the appropriations process today, June 20. 
This is quite an achievement. It has taken a lot of hard work by the 
committee. Both the Republican and Democrat members have worked very 
hard, applied themselves, had strenuous debates, and now we have 
completed our action, and we are looking forward to the action on the 
House floor for all of these bills, including today's defense bill.
  The second reason I rise is to thank the chairman and the ranking 
member for their consideration for the young men and women that serve 
this great country. One of the significant additions to this bill is an 
additional $500 million for the National Guard.
  National Guard soldiers, as you know, give up their jobs, their time 
with their family, make sacrifices to make sure this country is safe. 
Their equipment has been used and used hard, needs to be replaced. And 
thanks to these two gentlemen, we have $500 million to do just that.
  I think this is a very good bill. It does take consideration for 
young men and women who make sacrifices to serve this country and carry 
out the will of this Nation, and I hope that we can pass this quickly 
and get through the amendment process quickly as well.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield for the purpose of 
unanimous consent to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller).
  (Mr. MILLER of Florida asked and was given permission to revise and 
extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of fiscal year 
2007 Defense Appropriations Bill.
  I congratulate Chairman Young and the entire Defense Subcommittee on 
their hard work in support of our fighting men and women. I would also 
like to thank the Chairman for continuing the close relationship 
between the defense appropriators and authorizers.
  This is a fiscally responsible bill that falls within its limits as 
set forth by the Budget Act and is $4 billion, or 1 percent less than 
the President's request for defense funding. We are in the fifth year 
of the War on Terror and as is the case during times of conflict, 
Members of Congress work to balance funding for the troops and their 
immediate needs while ensuring the long term outlook of the military 
and our national security strategy needs are not forgotten. This bill 
achieves that balance.
  It is unfortunate that many on the other side of the aisle, in both 
the House and Senate, wish to use this bill to politicize the Iraq war 
and undermine the efforts of our troops. The Commander-in-Chief has the 
right and the responsibility to defend our Nation and I oppose any 
attempts to tie his hands through unnecessary legislation.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hobson), a member of the Defense 
Appropriations Subcommittee.
  Mr. HOBSON. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in full support of our fiscal 
year 2007 Defense Appropriations Bill. This bill and a bridge wartime 
supplemental funding it carries provide essential support for the 
forces engaged in the global war on terrorism.
  At the strategic level I would like to focus on the Army's long-term 
readiness level, not only for the current fight, but also for the 
global threats we face as a Nation. The global war on terrorism is a 
fight for our cherished way of life. It is not a question of can we as 
a Nation support more; it is an essential that we cannot afford less.
  I would truly understand the competing and compelling demands facing 
this body and the Nation. As we move this bill forward through the 
legislative process, we must ensure that the ground forces have 
everything they require in a timely fashion.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, again I want to thank the members 
of the subcommittee who worked so diligently. I want to thank 
specifically Mr. Murtha, who worked with us every day, every hour of 
every day as we put this bill together. Most Members of the House had 
some participation in the creation of this bill. In fact, there were 
412 Members who had something to do with the creation of this 
legislation. It is a good bill and I hope we can move it quickly.
  Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. Chairman, in accordance with earmark reform 
proposals currently under consideration in the Senate, I would like to 
place into the Record a listing of Congressionally directed projects in 
my home state of Idaho that are contained within the report to this 
bill. These are projects that I asked the Defense Subcommittee to 
consider this year and I am grateful for their inclusion in this bill.
  I'd like to take just a few minutes to describe why I supported these 
projects and why they are valuable to the nation and its taxpayers.
  The report contains $2.7 million for a technology entitled Vacuum 
Sampling Pathogen Collection and Concentration. Developed by Microbial-
Vac Systems', Jerome, Idaho, the advanced ``Vacuum 
Pathogen'' collection and concentration systems are critical to 
continued advancement of DOD's applications for manual and robotic 
sample acquisition and traceability of bio-threat agents in food safety 
and environmental settings. Commercialization of the technology was 
significantly advanced with an appropriation in last year's Defense 
bill but there remains a need to further develop and manufacture both 
systems to meet the general national defense and homeland security 
requirements for safe, rapid field-accessibility of sterile disposable 
units and improved field decontamination protocol. With the funding in 
this report, manufacturing capabilities will be expanded to provide 
military and civilian markets with sufficient numbers of sterilely 
packaged pathogen collection and concentration systems to meet the 
anticipated emergency immediate and long-term demand during hostile 
attacks and post-attack remediation/decontamination monitoring and 
verification procedures. Sample location and traceability will be 
enhanced with the addition of GPS or RFID tracking capabilities 
imbedded within the technology and activated during sample acquisition.
  This project was requested by Microbial-Vac Systems in Jerome, Idaho.
  The report contains $2 million for the Cyber Threat Validation Center 
at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The INL has demonstrated 
exceptional capability and depth in the Cyber Security and Critical 
Infrastructure Protection research, development and delivery arenas. 
The Cyber Threat Validation Center (CTVC) for the Department of Defense 
(DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC) would leverage and expand the 
existing analytic, research, and end-to-end system testing capabilities 
to deliver technical grounded analysis on emerging cyber security 
attack techniques and their impact on critical real world systems. The 
analysis will focus on the investigating emerging attack techniques 
with the objective of understanding how they might be applied against 
Defense Critical Infrastructure to include vital Public Works Defense 
Sector systems.
  I chose to request this project after learning about the capabilities 
of the INL in protecting our Nation against cyber based attacks on 
critical infrastructure systems. The Department of Energy and 
Department of Homeland Security have significant investments in the 
ongoing work at the INL. This DOD project will build on those 
capabilities and benefit from them.
  The report contains $2 million for the Idaho Accelerator Center (IAC) 
at Idaho State University's (ISU) Small Accelerators and Detection 
Systems for Defense Applications program. Ongoing work at IAC suggests 
that transportable accelerators can now be developed to actively 
identify suspected nuclear

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materials/packages in the field, neutralize biological/chemical agents 
when discovered, decontaminate areas where bio/chem agents may have 
been released, and detect explosives and contraband in a variety of 
challenging circumstances. The IAC and the ISU academic community, in 
collaboration with scientists and engineers from the private sector and 
national laboratories, has been involved in developing technology for 
the remote detection of hazardous materials and contraband for more 
than 15 years. Through these associations the IAC has devised non-
intrusive means to identify the contents of containers of various kinds 
that may contain Fissionable material, Radioactive material, 
Explosives, Hazardous material (biological or chemical), and Contraband 
(FREHC) for homeland and national security applications.
  This project was requested by Idaho State University in Pocatello, 
Idaho.
  The report contains $1 million for a program entitled Systematic 
Hierarchical Approach to Radiation Hardened Electronics (SHARE). As 
many of us know, consistent, reliable performance of integrated 
circuits (IC) used in space communication, surveillance, and guidance 
systems continues to be a potentially debilitating problem for the 
military services. The problem has been aggravated by the rapid and 
unsettling contraction of the industrial base needed to design and 
produce the specialized electronics that must perform in applications 
requiring high reliability in a challenging radiation-charged 
environment. As one of the principal users of radiation-hardened 
(RadHard) electronics, the U.S. Air Force is pursuing technologies that 
will ensure a ready and economical domestic capability for producing 
radiation hardened microelectronics using advanced commercial 
processes. SHARE has been identified by the Air Force as a critical 
capability that will enable collaboration among circuit designers, 
simulation software vendors, and foundries under the direction of SEAMS 
Center AFRL at Kirtland AFB, NM.
  This project was requested by American Semiconductor in Boise, Idaho.
  I appreciate the opportunity to provide a list of Congressionally-
directed projects in my region and an explanation of my support for 
them.
  Mr. STARK. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to yet another bloated 
Defense Appropriations bill. H.R. 5631 provides billions more for 
missile defense systems that are nothing but a pipe dream and a War in 
Iraq that has turned into an international nightmare.
  Republicans in Congress should wake up and smell the coffee. Another 
$9 billion for development of ineffective and outdated weapons systems 
may boost the bottom lines of their well-connected sugar daddies in the 
defense industry. But throwing good money after bad will do little to 
make Ronald Reagan's Cold War fantasy a reality. Despite nearly $100 
billion in research, these systems have yet to demonstrate even a basic 
ability to intercept incoming missiles. Even if they could, they'd do 
little to make us secure from the much more likely and contemporary 
threat of a weapon delivered by suitcase or cargo container.
  Republicans have irresponsibly funded the majority of their misguided 
Iraqi adventure through supplementals. But they couldn't resist also 
including tens of billions more in today's Defense Appropriations bill. 
In H.R. 5631, taxpayer money is appropriated as a so-called ``bridge 
fund'' for the first six months of war operations during fiscal year 
2007. But our troops should be brought home immediately. The bill's 
billions are, in reality, a bridge to more death and destruction. The 
United States' continued occupation encourages Iraqi civil war and 
feeds the insurgency, providing terrorists with refuge and recruits.
  Once upon a time, Congress took its oversight role seriously. Not 
today. Despite a recent Pentagon report that found significant cost 
overruns in 36 major weapons systems, this bill increases defense 
spending by a whopping $19.1 billion. As a result, defense spending 
will now total more than half of the entire federal discretionary 
budget!
  Instead, we should provide quality education and health care to all 
Americans. I urge my colleagues to join me in voting no to additional 
spending on ineffective missile systems and a counterproductive war.
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Chairman, thank you for recognizing me 
for some comments on H.R. 5631 and I urge my colleagues to join me in 
supporting this balanced bill that supports our troops and addresses 
critical issues to our Nation's safety and security.
  This bill provides $500 million in funding above the President's 
request for the equipment needs of the Army National Guard to provide 
items needed for homeland defense and disaster response. This funding 
is important to our district in Houston because it is susceptible to 
flooding--as we are seeing right now--and the National Guard has played 
a critical role in responding to past tropical storms and hurricanes in 
our district and along the Gulf Coast.
  Many Guard units are leaving equipment in Iraq when they finish their 
tour for future troops to use. This cuts down on transportation costs, 
but it also leaves units here in the U.S under-equipped to respond to a 
natural disaster. The funding in this bill is necessary to ensure Guard 
units here at home have the equipment to respond to these events.
  I also want to speak briefly on two important projects included in 
this bill.
  The first is the University of Houston Consortium for Nanomaterials 
for Aerospace Commerce and Technology (CONTACT). For the past four 
years, the University of Houston has been partnering with several 
University of Texas System institutions, Rice University, and the Air 
Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in the Strategic Partnership for 
Research in Nanotechnology (SPRING). Federal funding for SPRING will 
end in FY06, and CONTACT will carry on the work started under that 
partnership.
  CONTACT will have two main goals: to ensure our national air 
superiority through nanomaterials research and development, and to 
commercialize nanomaterials developed by scientists from Texas 
universities. This funding will make use of existing infrastructure and 
enable research, development and technology transfer that address three 
critical capabilities of the Air Force: power on demand, reconfigurable 
full-spectrum detectors, and interdisciplinary fundamental nanoscience 
and engineering.
  The second project will modernize the Standard Army Retail Supply 
Systems (SARSS) and Standard Army Ammunition System (SAAS) and combine 
the two systems into one by rewriting it in a Microsoft Windows 
environment.
  This program--the Army Legacy Logistics Systems Modernization (SAMS-
E)--modernizes computer logistics systems that are critical to the 
operation of the Army making them more efficient.
  This effort will link the STAMIS modules through the web, allowing 
for a sharing of information and a flexible supply chain that can be 
redirected seamlessly on the battlefield. The result will be more 
efficient field logistics management that will save money and provide 
soldiers with more dependable and reliable management systems.
  I applaud the Subcommittee and Committee for putting forward this 
balanced bill and urge my colleagues to join me in supporting it.
  Mr. PAUL. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to this legislation. 
This bill is unfortunately very short on real defense spending and very 
generous with spending enormous amounts on expensive military equipment 
that is ultimately of very little use to defend our country. This bill 
will not do much to help our military troops. In fact, it gives the 
troops a pay raise lower than civilian federal employees. It 
shortchanges them.
  The bill is very generous with spending on grossly over-budget 
acquisition of military equipment of questionable value in our current 
times. Over the past 5 years, the Defense Department has doubled 
spending on new weapons systems from about $700 billion to nearly $1.4 
trillion. However a recent Pentagon report found significant cost 
overruns--50 percent over original cost projections--in 36 major 
weapons systems. These programs benefit well-connected defense 
contractors, but they do not benefit the taxpayer and they do not 
benefit the soldiers who risk their lives.
  The bill manages to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on foreign 
aid--$372 million to Russia, for example--and the failed drug war, but 
it fails to address the real problems of a military force that has been 
seriously stretched and challenged by an unprecedented level of 
sustained deployment overseas. I urge my colleagues to support a 
defense spending bill that really puts defense of the United States 
first.
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I yield back the balance of my time.
  The Acting CHAIRMAN. The committee will rise informally.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Chocola) assumed the Chair.

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