[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 174 (Friday, November 9, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2386-E2387]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008--CONFERENCE REPORT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, November 8, 2007

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 3222) making 
     appropriations for the Department of Defense for fiscal year 
     ending September 30, 2008, and for other purposes:

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this 
legislation.
  The Defense Appropriations conference report for fiscal year 2008 
provides $459 billion in funding for our military operations, an 
increase of $39 billion over this year's enacted levels. This report 
begins to address this country's military readiness crisis, modernizes 
our forces to meet future threats throughout the world, and ensures 
that our troops get the benefits they have earned.
  This bipartisan bill invests in equipment, training, and weaponry--
including body armor and armored vehicles to save the lives of our 
soldiers. It restores depleted equipment for our National Guard and 
Reserve, provides a 3.5 percent pay raise for all military personnel, 
and fully funds the $1.9 billion TRICARE shortfall without cost to our 
troops. The bill provides an increase in funding for wounded warrior 
assistance and funds programs to improve coordination between the 
Defense Department, DOD, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, 
improve DOD's health record-keeping, and enhance preventative medicine 
programs.
  The bill strengthens the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction 
Program, which helps to secure loose nuclear materials in the former 
Soviet Union. It also provides accountability by increasing funding for 
additional Inspector General civilian personnel to oversee DOD's 
contract services, and establishes a clear set of rules-of-engagement 
for contracted security personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. It 
also includes language that I advocated for prohibiting funding for 
permanent U.S. bases in Iraq.
  The bill includes much that benefits Colorado. Section 8119 mandates 
that work to destroy chemical weapons stockpiles at Pueblo Chemical 
Depot be completed, preferably by the Chemical Weapons Convention 
treaty deadline of 2012, and in any event by no later than 2017. The 
bill also includes funding to help meet this deadline--$142.4 million 
for chemical demilitarization activities. This funding will accelerate 
weapons destruction activities already underway and will supplement 
$35.1 million for the construction of on-site chemical destruction 
facilities already provided in the fiscal year 2008 Military 
Construction spending bill.
  I strongly support these provisions because I think we need to 
continue to do all we can to safely and expeditiously remove the 
mustard agent remaining at the Pueblo depot. The sooner we clean up 
these weapons, the sooner the surrounding communities will be safe--and 
a clean-up by the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty deadline of 2012 
will come at a lower cost to taxpayers.
  I am also pleased that the conference report includes provisions I 
fought for to help Colorado's educational institutions--$3.2 million 
for the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs to help UCCS, 
working together with NORTHCOM, to offer the Nation's first federally 
funded Ph.D. program in homeland defense; $1.6 million for UCCS, 
working with the national Space Education Consortium, to advance 
science, technology, engineering, and math education; and $2 million 
for Colorado State University's DOD Center for Geosciences/Atmospheric 
Research to continue providing research on priority environmental 
problems to the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force.
  As a co-chair of the Bi-Cameral Caucus on Parkinson's Disease, I am 
also pleased that

[[Page E2387]]

the conference report includes $20 million for Parkinson's research in 
the Army's Neurotoxin Exposure Treatment Research Program, NETRP. This 
critical program was established over 10 years ago to investigate the 
causes, diagnosis, and treatments of Parkinson's disease to improve 
military readiness. American troops are routinely exposed to external 
stressors and toxins such as head injury, pesticides and herbicides, 
and scientists believe these exposures increase the risk of developing 
neurodegenerative conditions, particularly Parkinson's disease, that 
negatively impact the readiness of American military forces. 
Understanding how exposures occur and the incidence of disease 
afterwards will allow the Department of Defense to minimize the risk of 
future exposures, better protect military personnel, and improve 
military readiness.
  The military is not the only recipient of NETRP's benefits. Any 
research breakthroughs in prevention, detection, and treatment of 
neurodegenerative conditions are immediately applicable to civilians--
particularly the more than 1 million Americans with Parkinson's 
disease, including nearly 79,000 veterans and 60,000 newly diagnosed 
Americans each year.
  The Defense Appropriations conference report also includes a 
continuing resolution to fund the Federal Government for another month 
at fiscal year 2007 spending levels, and adds additional funding for 
the Department of Veterans Affairs, grants a temporary extension of the 
children's health, S-CHIP, program, and provides $500 million to 
bolster funding for federal firefighting programs following the 
California wildfires.
  I remain concerned about rising costs of weapons systems that have 
yet to be fully funded, and by budget projections that tell us that 
we'll need to increase defense budgets annually simply to sustain the 
current force structure and weapons programs. Because operations and 
maintenance and personnel costs--as well as training and recruiting 
costs--are also rising, we will need to do a better job balancing 
spending on current and future military priorities, and consider 
whether to fully fund all these weapons systems.
  Mr. Chairman, this is not a perfect bill. It does not solve or 
attempt to solve some of these looming budget problems. But overall, 
the bill deserves to pass and I urge its approval.

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