[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 55 (Thursday, March 29, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4131-S4133]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, today, just a few minutes ago, we voted on 
the emergency supplemental appropriations bill. I voted against the 
bill.
  From the beginning, I have tried to support our troops both morally 
and materially. It has always been my goal to ensure that our Armed 
Forces have a clearly defined mission, realistic military objectives, 
and the best equipment available. Yet, today, I believe we have reached 
a point where political infighting has led to bartering for bullets. We 
have tied vital military funding for our troops to an arbitrary date of 
withdrawal.
  The Senate, with this vote today--passing this supplemental spending 
bill with a date of withdrawal--has named the date for defeat in Iraq, 
if it were to stand. We have taken a step backward. We have put an 
arbitrary deadline on our military. It is the wrong message at the 
wrong time. Surely, this will embolden the enemy and will not help our 
troops in any way. It is a big mistake.
  I hope the President will veto this bill as soon as he gets it to his 
desk. I

[[Page S4132]]

did not support this supplemental because I remain committed to our 
troops, first and foremost.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington is recognized.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, the Senate has just made a tremendous 
effort in moving forward to make sure we support our troops in every 
sense of the word. I thank all of my colleagues who voted ``aye'' in 
moving this forward.
  It is important to remember that this is an emergency supplemental 
bill. I have heard others on the other side call it a war supplemental. 
It is true, indeed, that over the last several years, the President has 
insisted that we pay for the war in Iraq on an emergency supplemental. 
But I remind everyone that there are countless emergencies across this 
country, and we, as Democrats, believe it is critical that we address 
those concerns--whether it is our agricultural industry, which has 
faced drought, severe weather, family farms which have been inundated 
and unable to continue to provide the crops all of us rely on to feed 
our families; whether it is our veterans who, as the occupant of the 
chair well knows as a member of the Veterans' Committee, have been left 
behind time and time again.
  We all know of the Walter Reed issue that hit the papers several 
weeks ago. But this is not a new issue for many of us who have been 
following this issue for some time. We have men and women serving in 
Iraq and Afghanistan who are coming home and have severe traumatic 
brain injuries. They have been lost in the system. We are now starting 
the fifth year of this war, and to date this President has not planned 
and supported funding to make sure those men and women--whether it is 
traumatic brain injury or whether they lost a limb or whether they have 
post-traumatic stress syndrome or whether it is just coming home and 
being able to find another job--have been paid attention to.
  In this supplemental, we say we are going to pay for all costs of the 
war and certainly pay for those men and women who paid the ultimate 
price, along with their families, and taking care of them is part of 
that cost of war. In this critical bill which the Democrats voted for, 
we make sure they are a part of this.
  So we provide funding to repair the facilities at Walter Reed and 
also to make sure that across the country the Walter Reed syndrome is 
paid attention to. Those veterans facilities we have gotten the reports 
from--the 1,100 sightings of mold on the walls, of bats that have not 
been gotten rid of in the Oregon VA facility, of peeling paint on the 
walls--these kinds of conditions are not ones we as Americans should 
allow to continue.
  In the supplemental bill, we say we are going to take care of those 
issues, and we require specifically that the VA come back to us in 60 
days and identify every one of those 1,100 sightings and say whether 
they have fixed those facilities. If they have not, we want to know the 
exact cost, because we are not going to let those men and women sit in 
those deplorable conditions.
  Under this bill, we address the issue that has faced many of our 
soldiers who have returned home with traumatic brain injury. Many of us 
saw the Bob Woodruff special several weeks ago, a reporter who was in 
Iraq and who suffered a traumatic brain injury. We saw how he struggled 
with his recovery and now has presented an amazing news story to let 
all of us know what is happening not just with him but to men and women 
across this country as they come home. It is true when a soldier is in 
a vehicle that is immediately affected by a blast, they often know they 
have traumatic brain injury. It is also true soldiers who may be 100 or 
150 yards away from that blast may also receive an injury but may not 
know it.
  We have all talked to these men and women when we go home, and their 
wives normally say to us, my husband can't remember where he put a 
piece of paper I just handed to him, not realizing he had been a victim 
of a blast and that his injury had caused brain damage. We need to make 
sure those soldiers are treated and are treated well, and that we have 
the research and the capability to make sure they are not lost when 
they come home from service to this country. That funding is in this 
bill, and that funding was voted on by a majority of Senators in this 
body. We are going to keep working to make sure it is there.
  We also have in this bill money for Katrina. It seems a long time ago 
now that our country was stunned by the impact of Katrina and other 
hurricanes in the gulf coast. Americans across the country said, what 
are we going to do? We know since that time there have been major 
stumbles. As Democrats, we are not stepping back. We believe that is as 
much an emergency as what the President has asked for in this emergency 
supplemental focusing only on Iraq, the war, and the reconstruction 
efforts there.
  We have a reconstruction effort that is absolutely critical here in 
this country. Democrats are standing up and saying we are going to take 
responsibility and pay for it. There is $6.7 billion in here for the 
victims of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. I believe that is as 
much a critical emergency spending item as the reconstruction dollars 
the President has asked for in the supplemental, and that is why we are 
supporting this bill.
  This bill also addresses the issue of homeland security. We have 
heard a lot of rhetoric about homeland security and protecting our own. 
That is an emergency because that funding has not been there. Rhetoric 
protects no one here at home. We provide $2 billion, critical 
infrastructure dollars, for port security, mass transit security, and 
explosive detection equipment at our airports. We are putting it into 
this bill because it has not yet been funded, and across this country 
Americans are at risk without that funding.
  We have heard a lot of talk on this floor over the last several days 
about extra porkbarrel spending. Well, I would say to all of my 
colleagues there is $4.2 billion that is provided for Americans here at 
home--not for reconstruction efforts out in the world but for right 
here at home, $4.2 billion.
  Senator Boxer from California was out here yesterday showing 
tremendous pictures of the agricultural disasters that have occurred in 
California. These are farmers whom we rely on as Americans when we go 
to our grocery stores to be able to buy food to feed our families. If 
their farms are lost because they do not have the support after a 
disaster that has affected them, every one of us suffers. As Democrats, 
we say that is as much an emergency as what we are putting into this 
bill for reconstruction in Iraq. We need to reconstruct here at home.
  On this side we are playing catchup. For a number of years now we 
have seen emergency supplementals that were just war supplementals. We 
are saying that, as Democrats, we know we have to invest in ourselves 
across the country. We have to invest in our future. We will only be as 
strong abroad as we are at home. If we abandon our farmers, if we 
abandon our children because they do not have health care--and there is 
SCHIP funding in this bill--if we abandon our gulf coast residents, who 
have not yet been able to rebuild their homes and their infrastructure, 
if we abandon our veterans when they come home and don't take care of 
them, if we abandon our military personnel without the proper equipment 
and supplies, then we are not doing the job we have been sent here to 
do.
  We are proud of this supplemental we are putting forward because, in 
addition to everything else, we are taking a major step forward and 
saying we are no longer going to idly stand by without any debate, 
without any consequences, and move continuously to increase the war in 
Iraq. We have said it is time for us as a nation to tell the Iraqi 
people they need to stand up for themselves. That language is critical 
in this bill.
  We have worked with colleagues on all sides to put together what I 
think is a very important, very critical bill for us here in America--
here at home. We are going to work very hard now in conference with our 
House colleagues to come together with a bill to bring back to the 
Senate and then to send to the President. I understand the President is 
saying he is going to veto the

[[Page S4133]]

bill, but I ask the President to listen to us, to sit down in the way 
we are supposed to here in Congress, and work with us to find agreement 
so we can move this bill forward. That is my hope for us here, and it 
is my hope for Americans across this country.
  I am proud of the bill we have put forward in addressing the critical 
infrastructure investments here at home, and I hope as we move forward 
in this process in a few weeks we will be able to have a conference 
committee bill that will be sent to the President and that he will 
agree to so we can then move on to the other issues facing this Nation.
  I also take this opportunity to thank a number of people who worked 
on this bill, but particularly Chairman Byrd, who led us throughout 
this debate. I thank Senator Cochran, my ranking member, who has been 
out here on the floor late nights working with us to help keep an 
orderly process.

  I also thank all of our full committee staff, Terry Sauvain and Bruce 
Evans, all of their staff, who have worked countless hours. I am not 
sure they even went home last night before they came in this morning to 
help us get to the point we are today, and I thank all the staff of all 
the Appropriations subcommittees, who have worked very hard on this 
bill.
  I also thank our floor staff, because without their work and their 
support, none of us would be able to complete the work we do. They are 
the silent workers who sit in front of us and who have done such a 
tremendous job to help us get through this process.
  At the end of the day, I want my colleagues and I want America to 
know we in the majority here in the Senate believe an emergency 
spending bill should be just that. There are numerous emergencies 
across this country, investing in Americans who have suffered 
tremendously, and we are working hard to make sure their issues are 
finally addressed. Importantly, we are telling the President that our 
veterans and those who serve us in Iraq and Afghanistan, when they come 
home, their issues are going to be addressed as part of the cost of the 
war and as part of this emergency supplemental.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, the emergency supplemental appropriations 
legislation which passed the Senate today, the U.S. Troop Readiness, 
Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability Act of 2007, provides $625 
million in security funding to better protect the millions of Americans 
who ride public transportation. I thank Senator Shelby, who as both the 
ranking member on the Banking Committee and a member of the 
Appropriations Committee has been a tireless advocate on behalf of mass 
transit and specifically on the issue of transit security. I commend 
Senators Byrd and Cochran who serve, respectively, as both chairman and 
ranking member of the full Appropriations Committee and the Homeland 
Security Subcommittee. They were instrumental in deciding to increase 
our investment in securing our public transportation systems. The issue 
of transit security requires coordination between both homeland 
security agencies and committees and those transportation agencies and 
committees. Thus, I also commend Senators Murray and Bond who serve as 
chair and ranking member on the Appropriations Transportation, Housing 
and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee.
  Our Nation's public transit systems are inadequately prepared to 
minimize the threat and impact of potential terrorist attacks. Since 
the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Federal Government has 
invested nearly $24 billion in aviation security--protecting the 1.8 
million people who fly on an average day. At the same time, our 
National Government has invested only $386 million, before the 110th 
Congress began, in transit security to protect the 14 million people 
who ride transit on an average workday. Put another way, since 2001, 
our Nation has spent over $7.50 per passenger on aviation security, but 
less than one penny per transit rider on transit security. I am not 
suggesting that we ought to be investing equally, but clearly this is 
not the appropriate balance.
  As chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs 
Committee, I have made improving our national security a top priority. 
The very first hearing that I held as chairman focused on increasing 
the security of our Nation's 14 million daily transit passengers. The 
very first legislation that the committee considered during my 
Chairmanship was the Public Transit Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007, 
which was passed by the Banking Committee unanimously on February 8. 
The legislation authorizes the distribution of $3.5 billion in security 
funds, over the next 3 fiscal years, on the basis of risk directly to 
transit agencies.
  The Public Transit Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 was included as 
title XV of the 9/11 bill, which the Senate passed on March 13. Senator 
Shelby and I worked with Senator Byrd and Senator Cochran to include 
language in the legislation to allow for such sums as necessary to be 
appropriated in this fiscal year to address the critical needs of our 
Nation's transit systems. The $625 million included in this 
appropriations act is a significant investment towards our goal of 
better securing our Nation's rail and transit systems. This investment 
builds on the $175 million that was included in the fiscal year 2007 
continuing resolution. Combined, these investments are greater than all 
of the investments that were made between the terrorist attacks of 
September 11 and the beginning of this new Congress.
  We must make sure that we use these funds wisely. It is my desire 
that the Congress quickly reconcile both the transit security 
legislation and the supplemental funding that has passed each Chamber 
so that this supplemental funding will be distributed in accordance 
with the new authorization. I once again thank all of the members of 
the Banking and Appropriations Committees who have worked so hard to 
advance us to where we are today.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Brown). The Senator from Georgia is 
recognized.

                          ____________________