[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 85 (Thursday, May 22, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1017-E1018]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          EARMARK DECLARATION

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. TRENT FRANKS

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 21, 2008

  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Madam Speaker, in accordance with House 
Republican Conference standards, and clause 9 of rule XXI, I submit the 
following statement for the Record.
  The first purpose of the Federal Government is to provide for the 
common defense. In accordance with this responsibility, which I swore 
to do when I signed my oath of office, I offered several amendments in 
the House Armed Services Committee to H.R. 5658, The Duncan Hunter 
National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2009. One of the 
amendments I offered passed and I understand that Mr. Skelton, Chairman 
of the Committee, is now considering it an ``earmark'', which I believe 
is an inappropriate application of the definition and one which could 
subject all budget designations in the entire budget which differ from 
the President's submitted budget in any way to be considered 
``earmarks.'' House rule XXI defines an earmark as something that is 
included `primarily at the request of a Member,' and since the entire 
Committee considered and voted on my amendment, it was agreed to by the 
Committee, and not simply by one Member who by submitting an amendment, 
is merely offering it as a suggestion for the Committee's 
consideration. As such, the purpose of this statement is to describe 
what my amendment is and what it is not.
  The American people are right when they say Congress has a serious 
problem abusing the legislative process to fund pet and pork projects 
with American taxpayers' dollars. As such, I opted to suspend my 
requests to authorization and appropriations Committees until the 
system is cleared up enough to restore confidence both to the taxpayer 
and to me. Until this year, I did submit requests to the authorization 
and appropriations Committees in order to receive funding for programs 
and projects that are worthy of Federal dollars. I have always 
supported transparency and have never shied away from detailing which 
requests I asked for and which requests were ultimately included in the 
bills.
  Federal dollars should not be used simply to take from all taxpayers 
to pour into another person's coffers. In other words, Peter in New 
Mexico should not be robbed to pay Paul in Arizona, even if Paul lives 
in Congressional District Two, which I represent. Federal taxpayer 
dollars should be wisely used to ensure our entire Nation is served 
well. It was this principle that inspired me to offer three amendments 
in the Armed Services Committee.

[[Page E1018]]

  One amendment, which passed in an en bloc amendment, restores $6 
million to the Joint Tactical Ground System Pre-Planned Product 
Improvement effort. I included an offset for the money as well. The 
offset is the Army's High-Capacity Communications Capability radio, 
which has approximately $45 million more than the program can execute 
at this point in its acquisition life-cycle. This offset will not have 
a negative impact on the HC3 program.
  For nearly fifteen years, the Army's Joint Tactical Ground System, or 
``J-TAGS,'' (Program Element: 0208053A) has stood watch over our 
forward-deployed forces by providing rapid warning of ballistic missile 
launches. JTAGS relies upon a direct downlink from Defense Support 
Program (or DSP) missile warning satellites. The Army intends to 
modernize JTAGS to process SBIRS data, but is under-funded to 
accomplish this upgrade for each of the JTAGS suites on a co-current 
timeline with satellite and sensor deployment. JTAGS is developed by 
multiple companies including Northrop Grumman in Azusa, California, 
Northrop Grumman in Boulder, Colorado, and Lockheed Martin in 
Sunnydale, California. The contract for the primary hardware is won 
competitively. The program offices are in Colorado Springs, Colorado 
and Huntsville, Alabama.

  I have a letter from LTG Kevin Campbell, Commanding General of U.S. 
Army Space & Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command that 
calls attention to the risks we assume by under-funding this important 
upgrade, which is also included with this statement.
  This amendment is not parochial, wasteful, or frivolous. It is an 
example of the fruits of good government oversight and of prudent 
caretaking of the American taxpayer's hard earned money. This amendment 
is being conflated with Members' requests to fund pet projects to 
benefit private entities that have been squeezed into the bill without 
offsets, transparency, and frankly without regard to the true purpose 
of government.
  I believe the Chairman's definition of an earmark is at best 
inadvertently overbroad, and at worse it is deceiving to the American 
taxpayer, who will be closely watching the authorization process to 
ensure their money is not being abused.
  The annual defense policy bill has the potential to authorize around 
$515.4 billion of the American taxpayers' money to be spent to protect 
the Nation and U.S. interests worldwide. We must demonstrate to the 
American people that we are worthy of such responsibility. Since the 
Speaker pledged that this will be, ``the most honest, ethical, and open 
Congress in history,'' I think the Armed Services Committee ought to 
provide the tables of the House Report to each HASC Member's office at 
least 2 days in advance to the Full Committee markup so that we and our 
staff can carefully consider the contents.
  The Committee has traditionally provided directive report language 2 
days in advance to each HASC Member's office because such report 
language has the effect of law. The accompanying report tables however, 
which are often secret until after the markup is complete also have the 
effect of law. Oftentimes the tables of the House Report are altered in 
en bloc amendments during the Committee markup, rather than the actual 
text of the bill. These changes are made to language we have not seen 
and can add or take away funding for various projects, essentially 
circumventing the open and public means of amending the text of the 
bill. I would submit that if this Democratic controlled Congress is 
interested in truly reforming the earmark process, and since it is 
claiming to do so by calling my amendment an earmark, we should 
reassess what the problem actually is. The problem is wasteful spending 
in a secret, dishonest way without oversight. Truly restoring 
confidence in the taxpayers begins by shedding light on the report 
tables. This would be a step in the right direction.
         Department of the Army, U.S. Army Space and Missile 
           Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command,
                                      Huntsville, AL, May 5, 2008.
     Hon. Trent Franks,
     House of Representatives, Longworth Building, Washington, DC.
       Dear Congressman Franks: I would like to thank you and the 
     members of the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces for inquiring 
     on the needs of our Nation's requirements for assured theater 
     ballistic missile warning. I also view early theater missile 
     warning as a critical need for our forward deployed forces.
       As you state in your 1 May 2008 letter, the capabilities 
     provided by the Joint Tactical Ground Station (JTAGS) are 
     essential to meet the Warfighters needs. It is important that 
     we ensure unhindered execution of the JTAGS block upgrades 
     and modernization, so that we can take advantage of the new 
     Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS).
       The Department's Fiscal Year 2009 JTAGS funding reduction 
     of $6 million has resulted in an increase of technical and 
     schedule risk and caused the reprioritization of program 
     scope. Specifically, this reduction will cause an 
     approximately nine month delay of essential block upgrades 
     impacting JTAGS integration into the SBIRS architecture.
       Assured missile warning for our deployed forces remains an 
     essential warfighting requirement. We appreciate your support 
     in ensuring our men and women are provided every advantage 
     for their protection.
           Sincerely,

                                            Kevin T. Campbell,

                                          Lieutenant General, USA,
     Commanding.

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