[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 7317-7318]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            IRAQ WAR FUNDING

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, in his remarks yesterday, Senator Byrd 
raised serious questions about whether the Bush administration violated 
the law when it first began to prepare for war with Iraq without 
informing Congress it was using funds appropriated for other purposes 
to do so. Three days after 9/11, both the Senate and the House of 
Representatives approved $40 billion in emergency funds in response to 
that tragedy. The legislation was signed into law on September 18, 
2001.
  Its clearly stated purpose was ``to respond to the terrorist attacks 
on the United States that occurred on September 11, 2001, to provide 
assistance to the victims of the attacks, and to deal with other 
consequences of the attacks.''
  When the Congress approved these funds images of the World Trade 
Center towers falling and the plume of smoke over the Pentagon were 
fresh in the minds of every American, and the Nation was mourning the 
loss of 3000 men and women who were brutally murdered in the worst 
terrorist attack in our history.
  We were at war with al-Qaida, a terrorist organization based in 
Afghanistan, and with the Taliban government

[[Page 7318]]

that was giving it sanctuary. Congress was united in its determination 
to help the administration win the war in Afghanistan and do all we 
could to prevent any further terrorist attacks.
  Congress clearly did not intend those funds to be used for a war with 
Iraq. There had been no debate about Iraq. We were not thinking about 
Iraq in those painful and dark days after the 9/11 attacks.
  But the administration was.
  As we now know, the Bush administration was focused on Iraq from day 
one after the inauguration, and it was quick to use the 9/11 tragedy to 
advance its agenda on Iraq.
  According to former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's account in Ron 
Suskind's book, ``The Price of Loyalty,'' Iraq was on the agenda at the 
very first meeting of the National Security Council, just 10 days after 
President Bush's inauguration in 2001. As Secretary O'Neill said: 
``Getting Hussein was now the Administration's focus. From the start, 
we were building the case against Hussein and looking at how we could 
take him out and change Iraq into a new country. And, if we did that, 
it would solve everything. It was all about finding a way to do it. 
That was the tone of it. The President saying, `Fine. Go find me a way 
to do this.'''
  September 11 gave the administration the excuse they were looking for 
to go to war with Iraq. According to notes taken by an aide to 
Secretary Rumsfeld on September 11, the very day of the attacks, the 
Secretary ordered the military to prepare a response to the attacks. 
The notes quote Rumsfeld as saying that he wanted the best information 
fast, to judge whether the information was good enough to hit Saddam 
and not just Osama bin Laden. ``Go massive,'' the notes quote him as 
saying. ``Sweep it all up. Things related and not.''
  As Bob Woodward's new book, ``Plan of Attack'' reveals, President 
Bush himself asked Secretary Rumsfeld to get a war plan for Iraq on 
November 21--barely 2 months after the devastating attacks. In the many 
months that followed, Congress had no idea that secret preparations for 
war in Iraq were underway. It was not until September 2002, nearly 10 
months later, that the administration even asked Congress to authorize 
war in Iraq.
  Senator Byrd is right to raise this issue and to ask the tough 
questions. In a hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee on 
Tuesday, Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz gave us a non justification. 
He said that the administration notified Congress about $63 million in 
military construction spending for Iraq on October 11 2002--just 1 day 
after Congress passed the joint resolution authorizing the use of force 
in Iraq. After that, Secretary Wolfowitz said, ``some $800 million were 
made available over the following months to support Iraq preparatory 
tasks consistent with that joint resolution.''
  But Mr. Wolfowitz's claim is inconsistent with the assertion in Bob 
Woodward's book that $700 million worth of ``preparatory tasks'' were 
approved in the summer of 2002 to accommodate the major U.S. troop 
deployment that would be required for the invasion of Iraq.
  Diverting funds from the war in Afghanistan or from the Pentagon's 
regular operating budget to prepare for war against Iraq without the 
knowledge of Congress is clearly a fundamental breach of the trust that 
must exist between Congress and the President in our system of 
government. It is clearly at odds with the requirement of the Emergency 
Supplemental Appropriations Act itself, which states that ``the 
President shall consult with the Chairmen and ranking minority members 
of the Committees on Appropriations prior to the transfer of these 
funds.''
  In the summer of 2002 when these plans were under way, the war 
against al-Qaida was far from over. Osama bin Laden was still at large. 
If Mr. Woodward is correct, the failure even to consult with Congress 
shows the contempt of the Bush administration for the constitutional 
role of Congress on the fundamental issue of war and peace.
  We need satisfactory answers to many questions:
  Did the administration divert funds provided to respond to the 9/11 
attacks and spend them in the summer of 2002 to prepare for war in 
Iraq?
  If the administration did begin spending those funds in the summer of 
2002, why did it not consult the Chairman of the Appropriations 
Committee as the law required.?
  If the administration did begin spending such funds in the summer of 
2002, why did the quarterly reports provided to Congress not clearly 
indicate that projects were being funded to prepare for war with Iraq?
  The failure to engage the Congress confirms what many of us have said 
all along. The administration had a hidden agenda from day one, and it 
shamelessly capitalized on fears created by 9/11 to advance that 
agenda.
  The Congress and the American people deserve answers, and we deserve 
them now. The administration must tell the full truth and provide to 
the Congress and the American people a full accounting of all Iraq war 
related expenditures in 2002.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cornyn). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Ms. CANTWELL. I ask to speak for 20 minutes on two pieces of 
legislation.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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