[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 1635-1636]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          TRUE COST OF WAR TO BE HIDDEN UNTIL AFTER ELECTIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cooper) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COOPER. Mr. Speaker, I addressed the House last night on the 
subject of President Bush's State of the Union message and compared his 
words on that evening in this Chamber just some 3 weeks ago in which he 
said he would present to us a budget which paid for the war, and let me 
read his words exactly. ``In 2 weeks, I will send you a budget that 
funds the war.''
  Well, 2 weeks later, the President failed to do that. He failed to 
include any of the cost for the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan in his 
budget. You might think that is just a conflict, maybe a 
miscommunication with speech writers. But yesterday on the Senate side 
in a very important hearing the service chiefs of the Marines, Army and 
Air Force all said that this funding gap, the possible failure of our 
forces in Afghanistan and Iraq to have the money that they need come 
this fall, could create serious consequences.

[[Page 1636]]

  Let me read the article from today's New York Times. ``In an unusual 
display of difference with the White House, the top officers of the 
Army, Marine Corps and Air Force all raised questions on Tuesday about 
how the Bush administration plans to pay for operations in Afghanistan 
and Iraq after the current financing runs out at the end of September.
  ``Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, three of the 
four chiefs of the Armed Services expressed concerns about a financing 
gap, perhaps of 4 months, for the two missions, whose combined cost is 
about $5 billion a month.
  ``They were left out of President Bush's budget request for the 2005 
fiscal year, with the administration saying it would make a 
supplementary request for up to $50 billion probably next January, 
after the elections this year.
  ```I am concerned,' General Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army Chief of 
Staff, said in response to a question from Senator Jack Reed, Democrat 
of Rhode Island, `on how we bridge between the end of this fiscal year 
and whenever we could get a supplemental in the next year.'
  ``General Michael W. Hagee, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, and 
General John P. Jumper, the Air Force Chief of Staff, agreed with 
General Schoomaker's concerns.''
  A little further down in the article, General Schoomaker stated, ``We 
are all concerned about maintaining continuity of operations. We want 
to make sure that we minimize the bridge.'' He emphasized that the 
timing and mechanics of seeking a supplemental spending bill were up to 
the Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and White House officials. He 
said that he was simply describing the possible consequences for the 
Army.
  Mr. Speaker, America knows we are at war. We know that 120,000 of our 
men and women in uniform are in daily, constant danger in Iraq, and 
10,000 more troops are at danger in Afghanistan. Yet none of the cost 
of this war is in the President's budget. The President has said that 
he will get a supplemental request to us after the election. That is 
probably not time enough, according to these top military officials.
  Our men and women in uniform deserve better treatment. They deserve 
full funding, full continuity of funding, and full, honest accounting 
of how much this operation costs, and the American taxpayer is ready to 
step up to those needs. We should not hide the true cost until after 
the election and risk undercutting our men and women in uniform in the 
field when they are at war because of politics in this political 
season. Let us do better in this House to fully fund our men and women 
in uniform.

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