[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 24302]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    JUNGLE CAMOUFLAGE IN THE DESERT?

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I have heard about the sweetheart deals and 
the war profiteering in the rebuilding of Iraq, the billions that are 
being wasted, but how are the troops doing over there on the ground? 
Not so well, it turns out. Thirty to 40,000 of our troops cannot get 
$500 pieces of body armor. They are working with flak vests from the 
Vietnam era which will not stop an AK-47 bullet. We have Humvees with 
canvas side curtains. Some of our troops are being sent over there with 
jungle camouflage. We cannot afford that desert camouflage.
  How is it with the buildup for months by this administration, a $380 
Pentagon budget, $80 billion appropriated by Congress last April for 
this war, that the Bush administration, Secretary Rumsfeld in all of 
his great wisdom, could not have thought to buy our young men and women 
body armor, to give them armored Humvees, to get them desert fatigues, 
boots and sidearms that work, and other critical supplies? They said we 
just cannot afford it, we need more money, then maybe we will give the 
young men and women what they need.
  Mr. Speaker, they can find that money. It is about 2 minutes' 
spending at the Pentagon.

                          ____________________