[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 68 (Thursday, April 26, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S5169]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           IRAQ SUPPLEMENTAL

  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, recently we learned the Ohio National 
Guard could face early redeployment. We learned the National Guard is 
being asked to train without the proper equipment. Our Guard will do 
the job well regardless of the circumstances, but it is wrong to send 
them to Iraq with incomplete training and inadequate equipment and with 
insufficient downtime.
  The supplemental passed today echoes what many of us in Congress and 
military families across the country have been saying: We need a new 
direction for Iraq. Make no mistake, we take a backseat to no one in 
supporting the brave men and women fighting in Iraq. We absolutely 
support their families. However, more of the same is not a plan for our 
troops and will not end this war in Iraq. This war has made our world 
and our country less safe. The Iraq war has cost 142 Ohioans their 
lives. It has wounded another 1,000 Ohioans.
  Congress will continue to fight for our Nation's military by working 
to see they have the resources and support they need and leadership 
they deserve. The supplemental did that today. The supplemental fully 
funds and fully supports our troops, while establishing conditions that 
will bring our troops home. It provides desperately needed funding to 
the VA, something the President simply has not asked for, to help care 
for the hundreds of thousands of new veterans created by this war.
  In the Veterans' Committee yesterday, we heard from families about 
tragedy after tragedy, from families who have lost loved ones in this 
war, who didn't get the proper care from the VA because of 
underfunding, who didn't get the proper direction when they returned 
home from Iraq because the White House simply did not schedule in the 
way they should have the kind of help for returning Iraqi veterans. If 
the President won't take responsibility for those failures and lead our 
troops home, then Congress must. We owe it to our soldiers, sailors, 
air men and women, our marines, and especially to their families.
  The President should listen to the military leaders and listen to the 
American people and work with Congress to change course in Iraq instead 
of threatening vetoes. I hope the President reads this legislation 
before he makes his final determination whether to sign it or whether 
to veto it. Vetoing this legislation would deny funding that our 
military needs and that our veterans desperately need, such as $99 
billion in emergency Department of Defense spending--$4 billion more 
than the President requested; $3 billion for mine-resistant, ambush-
protected vehicles; $4.8 billion in military construction in part to 
fund BRAC--$3.1 billion will go to funding the BRAC 2005 account, and 
we know all over the country how important that is; and $1.6 billion 
for individual body armor.
  The President and the Pentagon and civilian leaders of this country 
have fallen shamefully short in their failures to provide the body 
armor for our troops. We have all heard too many stories. I have heard 
them in Steubenville and Toledo and Dayton about soldiers' families 
telling us they didn't have the proper body armor they needed.
  The VA would get $1.7 billion more than the President's VA proposal. 
We know the VA is underfunded at least that much. They have increased 
only about 10 percent in terms of employees but have a workload of 
returning Iraqi war veterans of at least 2.5 times that number. There 
is $39 million in our supplemental budget for polytrauma-related 
funding. There is $10 million for blind veterans programs. There is 
$100 million--and this is essential--for VA mental health services and 
$25 million for prosthetics. None of those did the President include in 
his request, and none of those have we prepared for properly in the 
previous Congress and in the White House.

  When we add up the numbers and we see 3,300 soldiers and marines in 
our country have lost their lives in the Iraq war, when you understand 
the tens of thousands of injuries, we see that our VA is simply not 
prepared. They are not prepared for this year and next year, let alone 
for the 50 years down the road when taxpayers are going to be taking 
care of these deserving veterans, giving the kind of care that we 
should be providing. We are going to see we are not prepared over the 
next 50 years to do that, either for health treatment or for treatment 
of mental health injuries.
  In addition to the Iraq spending and the spending for our Nation's 
returning veterans, there are other things in this emergency spending 
bill, as there were in Republican bills in the past, drafted by the 
White House, passed by the Republican House and Senate. There is other 
crucial emergency spending that needs to be dealt with: $1.3 billion 
for Katrina relief, $100 million for FEMA and emergency management 
performance grants, $425 million for securing rural schools, $13 
million for mine safety. We have seen some of the most dangerous times 
in our Nation's mines in the last couple of years. There is $625 
million for pandemic flu response, something public health authorities 
warn us about every week or so here. There is $400 million for LIHEAP 
to take care of deserving elderly and indigent who simply cannot afford 
their heating and cooling bills and another $683 million for emergency 
relief grants--all that this Congress needs to do.
  The President has set our Nation on a path that leads in the wrong 
direction in Iraq and fails to meet the needs of our returning 
veterans. It is time to change paths. I ask again that the President of 
the United States read this bill, understand this bill, and understand 
how the supplemental bill addresses the needs our country faces in the 
years ahead.
  Madam President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CARPER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________