[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 55 (Thursday, March 29, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4139-S4140]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. REED. Madam President, the emergency appropriations bill passed 
by the Senate this morning is urgently needed for our troops in Iraq 
and Afghanistan, for our wounded veterans, and for scores of Americans 
facing natural disasters on the homefront.
  I commend Chairman Byrd and Senator Cochran for their hard work and 
close collaboration. As the acting chairman of the Military 
Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, I 
also wish to thank Senator Hutchison and her able staff, along with my 
committee staff, for the help they gave in crafting the portions of the 
supplemental which dealt with military construction and veterans 
affairs.
  The total for military construction and veterans affairs in this 
supplemental is $6.548 billion. It includes in title I $1.644 billion 
for military construction. Also contained in this section is a proviso 
restricting the obligation of $280 million until the Secretary of 
Defense certifies that none of the funds will be used for the purpose 
of establishing permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq. I think that is 
an important point to clarify.
  Title II of the recommendation includes a total of $4.9 billion for 
military construction and also for activities at the Department of 
Veterans Affairs. This includes $3.137 billion to restore funding for 
BRAC, which is very important to reset our forces as they are returned 
from overseas and to help reconfigure all of the services. This fully 
funds the request of the Department of Defense for fiscal year 2007 for 
this account and will keep the BRAC process on track.
  Because the costs of the war are not associated strictly with 
activities on the battlefield, the recommendation includes $1.767 
billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
  In crafting the VA portion of this bill, we targeted the funding 
specifically for purposes of building capacity to deal with the influx 
of OEF and OIF veterans, hiring claims adjudicators and leveraging 
technology to expedite benefit claims, and upgrading existing VA 
facilities.
  The VA health care system is one of the best in the world. It has 
specialties in a number of areas, including spinal cord injury and 
blind rehabilitation. Because of these specialties, the VA has become a 
great resource for the treatment of troops wounded in Iraq and 
Afghanistan. However, due to the nature of combat in Iraq and 
Afghanistan, coupled with the advances in battlefield medicine, both 
the DOD health care system and the VA health care system are treating 
more military personnel with complex and multiple wounds and 
particularly traumatic brain injuries.
  In response to this, in 2005, the Congress provided funding to the 
Department of Veterans Affairs to establish polytrauma centers. The 
funding contained in this bill builds on the success of these centers 
by providing a total of over $163 million in polytrauma care for 
services ranging from establishing more level 1 comprehensive 
polytrauma centers to creating polytrauma residential transition 
rehabilitation programs, to upgrading the entire polytrauma network 
system.
  The bill also adds $150 million for enhancements to readjustment 
counseling, substance abuse programs, and mental health treatment 
capacity. These are specialty areas that the VA will need to continue 
to expand to deal with readjustment issues facing veterans returning 
from the war zone. In order to begin making progress toward 
deficiencies identified by the VA's facilities condition assessment and 
to prevent a possible Walter Reed Building 18 situation, the 
recommendation includes $550 million in nonrecurring maintenance and 
$356 million in minor construction.
  In addition to funding provided to the Department, the supplemental 
also includes a general provision directing the National Academy of 
Public Administration to conduct an independent analysis of the 
management, structure, and processes that are in place at the VA with 
regard to providing health care to active duty and veterans of the wars 
in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as providing benefits to veterans of 
these conflicts. This study will assist the VA and Congress in 
identifying the cumbersome bureaucratic redtape that far too many of 
our soldiers go through in their transition to the VA.
  The bill also includes a provision requiring the Congressional Budget 
Office to conduct a budget study of the current and future long-term 
budget impacts of OEF and OIF on the Department of Veterans Affairs. We 
know with a number of these young men and women who have been severely 
injured--many with brain injuries and likely lifespans of 50 or 60 more 
years--that we will have to provide long-term, consistent, robust 
funding. We should identify that number now and provide that continuing 
support for the next several decades.
  This supplemental marks the continuing high priority the Senate 
places on ensuring that yesterday's, today's, and tomorrow's soldiers 
are cared for in the highest manner once they have done their duty and 
once they have come home to America.
  Let me make one other point. I was somewhat disappointed in this bill 
because I was attempting to include an amendment to rehabilitate a 
levee system in Woonsocket, RI, to ensure it is up to Federal 
standards.
  This amendment would have provided $3.25 million for the city of 
Woonsocket to rehabilitate the levee, including replacing important 
gate cables. The present cables are about 40 years old. According to 
the Army Corps of Engineers, failure of a cable during operation could 
result in an uncontrolled discharge downstream of the dam. Woonsocket 
is an old industrial city, densely populated, and these levees protect 
that city.

  The Woonsocket project was built between December 1963 and April 1967 
by the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps estimates that cumulative 
flood control benefits for the Blackstone Valley project are more than 
$82 million. This project in place protects at least $82 million worth 
of property.
  Given the importance of this flood protection to Woonsocket and 
communities on the Blackstone River, I believe Federal assistance is 
warranted to protect life and property.
  These deficiencies were discovered as a direct result of Katrina. We 
learned in Katrina there were projects, levees that were 
unsatisfactory. They failed and they caused billions of dollars of 
damages. Being forewarned--I hope we are forewarned--that having 
studied these problems, I hope we can now come together in Congress to 
provide the resources and help these local communities, many of which 
do not have the resources to sustain this kind of immediate and rapid 
expenditure.
  A recent assessment by the Corps found that the Woonsocket levee and 
dam is in need of repairs. The Corps has given the city until February 
2008 to make these repairs, otherwise the project will no longer be 
eligible for Federal construction funding through the Army Corps of 
Engineers.
  In addition, if these repairs are not made, the Federal Emergency 
Management Agency could, and likely will, determine the levee no longer 
offers adequate flood protection and could require residents to buy 
flood insurance, which is a very expensive proposition. The city of 
Woonsocket is economically distressed. It needs Federal assistance. 
There are other communities around the country that might be in a 
similar situation.
  The devastation wrought by Katrina in New Orleans shows us what could 
happen. Now we have the knowledge--the foreknowledge--and now we have 
to act. I am disappointed we did not act in this situation to protect 
this complex of levees.
  I will continue to bring this issue to the attention of my colleagues 
again and again because I believe that with this knowledge, action is 
required--prompt, appropriate action--to ensure this community is 
protected.
  I wish to make a final point because my colleague has been very 
patient and very considerate in allowing me to go ahead.
  We have included in this supplemental language with respect to our

[[Page S4140]]

policy in Iraq which I think is important, indeed, perhaps historical. 
It recognizes that we should begin a phased redeployment of our forces. 
It recognizes that we also must maintain certain missions in Iraq--
counterterrorism operations, training Iraqi security forces, and 
protecting our forces. But it does emphasize we should begin on a date 
certain going forward to take out our forces at a pace and a level 
decided by operational commanders. There is a goal--not a fixed 
deadline--but a goal that our combat forces--those not performing these 
residual missions--should be out of Iraq by March 31, 2008.
  This is a solution proposed essentially by the Iraq Study Group. It 
has been recommended, endorsed by the public sentiment of the American 
people by a wide margin. It allows us to continue missions that are 
critical to the safety and security of not only ourselves but of the 
region, but it does, we hope, disengage us from a potential and 
sometimes very real civil war in Iraq.
  I hope that in the deliberations with the House, we can come up with 
a measure that combines the best elements of both versions of the 
spending bill. I hope we can bring this to the President and discuss it 
with him. It does represent, I think, the sentiment of the American 
people. It does represent not only the sentiment that we change course 
in Iraq, but, as this budget does, we fully fund our forces in Iraq.
  I am hopeful we can make progress and that we can send to the 
President a bill, after discussing it with him, that could be signed 
rather than vetoed. That is my hope at this moment.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Tester). The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I believe I am to be recognized for 20 
minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.

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