[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10780-10783]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2005--Continued

  Mr. WARNER. Madam President, I ask at this time that we return to the 
pending bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill is the pending question.
  Mr. WARNER. And that the distinguished Senator be recognized.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Mr. DAYTON. I thank the distinguished chairman of the committee, 
Senator Warner, and I certainly want to join in his remarks commending 
the husband of the Presiding Officer, the distinguished Senator Dole--
both distinguished Senators Dole--and also to recognize Chairman 
Warner, who has been superb in his quest for the truth of what has 
happened in Iraq that has come to light in recent days.
  I know it has been very difficult and there has been a high amount of 
pressure on him, but he and our ranking member, Senator Levin, have led 
us well on that committee, as they have throughout my 3\1/2\ years of 
service.
  We are very fortunate that he has continued his distinguished 
leadership to our Senate and to our Nation throughout these years and 
continues to do so now.
  This week we are debating the Defense Authorization Act for 2005 and 
will return to it after the Memorial Day recess. I thank the majority 
leader, Senator Frist, for not trying to rush us through this important 
legislation, because it is complex, and it is also very costly.
  This bill authorizes $422 billion of taxpayer money and borrowed 
funds for our national defense purposes in fiscal year 2005. That does 
not count the $25 billion supplemental that the President has 
requested, and it does not count the additional supplemental that we 
know soon after the November election will also be requested for the 
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq during the rest of that fiscal year, 
probably another $35 billion to $50 billion. That means a total of 
almost $500 billion authorized for military operations in the year 
2005.
  When I arrived 4 years ago, in fiscal year 2001, that comparable 
figure was $309 billion. That is an increase of over 60 percent in just 
4 years.
  Obviously, a lot has happened since then. There was 9/11, the war in 
Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, the war against terrorism, homeland 
security, costs most of which are not included in this bill. I have 
supported every defense, homeland security authorization, and 
appropriations bill during my 3\1/2\ years in the Senate, and I sit on 
both authorizing committees. I will support this bill, as I did in 
committee. I will support the $25 billion supplemental appropriation, 
as I have all of the previous supplemental requests.
  I want to ask for some answers from our Commander in Chief, President 
Bush: In return for this $500 billion of taxpayers' money, what is your 
plan in Iraq? What must be accomplished, and by whom, before we declare 
victory? How long will that take?
  I spent 5 hours in the Senate Armed Services Committee hearings this 
week, 1 hour yesterday with approximately 40 of my colleagues, with the 
Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and 
the generals in charge of the war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. I 
did not get answers to those basic questions. I heard generalities but 
not answers.
  General Abizaid, the excellent general in charge of that region of 
the war, said it is vital that we ``stay the course.'' OK. But what 
course are we on? Where does it lead us? Where are you leading us, Mr. 
President?
  I voted against the Iraq resolution in October of 2002 for three 
reasons. I thought it was unconstitutional for Congress to give up its 
constitutional responsibility to declare war and give the President 
that authority 6 months before he himself made his decision. Second, I 
was not persuaded that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction that 
threatened our national security.

[[Page 10781]]

Third, I believed the invasion and occupation of an Arab nation would 
weaken, not strengthen, our national security. I believe I was right on 
all three.
  Now that we are there, I want us to succeed. We must succeed. The 
stakes are too high for failure or defeat. But what constitutes 
success? We have already successfully achieved our stated objectives. 
Our Armed Forces smashed Saddam Hussein's army and toppled his regime 
in 3 weeks. We won that military victory overwhelmingly. We determined 
that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction to use against us or 
anyone else. None were used, thank God. None were found on the 
battlefields or in caches or in sheds or caves or anywhere else. None 
were even in production.
  For the last year, our Armed Forces have heroically protected the 
country, helped to rebuild it, and trained and equipped some 200,000 
Iraqis as police and militia. On June 30, some measure of authority 
will be transferred to an Iraqi government, selected by a 
representative of the United Nations, along with a blueprint for 
developing a national constitution and holding democratic elections. 
Success, success, success--a grand slam.
  What else must we do? Madam President, 794 heroic Americans have 
given their lives to achieve that success, and I join with my 
colleague, Senator Coleman, who cited each of those Minnesotans by 
name. They are truly, like their fallen comrades, American heroes. 
Thousands more American heroes have been wounded. There are 134,000 
American heroes risking their lives every day and every night over in 
Iraq for some indefinite period of time. And for what? For what, Mr. 
President?
  We can do no more for the people of Iraq than give them back their 
country. What they decide to do with it is up to them. That is 
democracy. It is their country. They should administer it, patrol it, 
police it, and defend it--not us. If we are doing any of that, we are 
still running their country. We still get blamed for whatever is going 
wrong. Our men and women still do the fighting, the bleeding, and the 
dying. Yet growing numbers of Iraqi citizens and people in other Arab 
countries hate us, want to drive us out of Iraq, want to retaliate 
against our troops or against our citizens. The longer we occupy Iraq, 
the more that hatred will increase.
  There is no such thing as a perfect war. War causes deaths and 
destruction on intended targets and unintended victims. The 
devastation, the killing and maiming is horrific on everybody--our 
soldiers, their soldiers, their civilians, innocent men, women, and 
children who live there. Remember, it is their home. The stakes are 
inevitable and their ill effects are cumulative.
  Last week, it was Abu Ghraib. This week it is a wedding attack. Next 
week it will be something else. There is no subtraction. There is no 
better. There is either war or there is peace.
  Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of 
God.
  Again, I call upon President Bush to explain to us, the American 
people and to the world, for what purpose do we now remain in Iraq? 
What more must we accomplish, and how long will it take? How will the 
Iraqis learn to run their country except by running their country? How 
will they learn to police it except by policing it, to defend it except 
by defending it? It will not be easy for them. It will not be smooth. 
They have not had those responsibilities for over a quarter century, 
but it is time they started now, step by step, stage by stage. They 
should do more, and we should do less.
  If we must extinguish every pocket of resistance, we will be there a 
long time, particularly when it is resistance to our being there.
  The responsibility for 5,000 insurgents should be the Iraqis'--not 
ours. Their police should patrol their streets, protect their property, 
keep their peace--not our soldiers.
  In Falluja, where Marine General Tim Conway turned those 
responsibilities over to Iraqi command, an uprising of 2 weeks ago is 
reportedly quieting down. Insurgents battling against us switched sides 
and joined the local police force. Most of the people fighting against 
us there stopped fighting against their fellow Iraqis and the rest were 
told to leave town by other Iraqis. Surely 200,000 Iraqi police and 
militia can contain 5,000 insurgents without us, without our bleeding 
and dying.
  Our decision is, do we get out of Iraq in months or do we want to 
stay in Iraq for years? Right now the Bush administration's intention 
appears to be geared for years, with the assumption that our staying 
longer will produce a better result, a result more to our liking, for 
whatever those unstated reasons are.
  But what if our staying longer will make things worse, for the Iraqis 
and for us? More violence, more casualties, more unrest, and more 
instability? That is not success. The worse conditions become there, 
the harder it becomes for us to leave because we cannot be considered 
weak or lacking will. In fact, the world doesn't think we are weak. 
They don't question our will. They are wondering if we are wise.
  Getting out of Iraq in months instead of years is wise. We do it on 
our stated terms, not on anyone else's. We phase ourselves out, we 
phase Iraqis in--quickly. First they are made to have responsibility 
for their cities, for patrolling, policing, establishing law and 
keeping order; then their highways and other infrastructure; then 
oilfields and refineries; then their border security. During that 
transition, up to one-half of our forces could depart, be stationed in 
a neighboring country at the ready, and the other half could 
transition, as this transfer occurs, to secure base camps in Iraq where 
we will make it clear we will not tolerate anarchy or civil war or 
foreign intervention. The rest of it we allow the Iraqis to work out 
for themselves, among themselves, by themselves. We enlist other Arab 
nations and the United Nations to assist with those resolutions while 
we ensure against catastrophe, and we make clear our intention to leave 
as soon as Iraq's sovereignty is secure, as soon as Iraq's new 
government has established law and order. That is their democracy. That 
is our success.
  Paradoxically, in life the more you try to control events to get what 
you want, the more you become controlled by those events and you don't 
get what you want. The administration picked their favorite Iraqi-in-
exile and paid him reportedly millions of dollars to do their bidding. 
This week, American troops raided his headquarters and arrested his 
cronies. We don't know who the right Iraqis are to lead their country. 
Iraqis may not know yet themselves. But they will have better ideas 
than we will.
  Our challenge, and our opportunity, will be to befriend their chosen 
leaders rather than to make our chosen friends into their leaders, only 
to discover they are not friends at all.
  Instead, we should focus our efforts on aiding Iraq's new leaders to 
succeed, to rebuild and improve their country. That will make their 
leaders our friends. That will make their citizens our friends. That 
will help make more people in the Arab world our friends. And that 
would strengthen our national security much more than would more war.
  To date, only $3.7 billion of the $15 billion Congress provided to 
help rebuild Iraq has been expended. Obviously, the lack of security 
has limited those expenditures. But so has the lack of commitment by 
the Bush administration because they have eschewed nation building. 
They have spent even less than that for rebuilding Afghanistan, a 
country which has a credible leader, President Karzai, with whom I met 
in Kabul, Afghanistan in January of 2002. He was desperate for our help 
in rebuilding his destitute country. What an opportunity to show the 
people of Afghanistan and the people of the Arab world what American 
knowledge, technology, capitalism, and compassion can do to make their 
lives better. It is an opportunity so far squandered by the Bush 
administration which, as I said, scorns nation building.
  Nation building is better than nation bombing--better for them, 
better for us, and better for the world. A better world is our best 
national security. People whose lives we are helping to improve, who we 
are teaching and aiding to improve their own lives, become

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our friends, not our enemies. They will not harbor our enemies or help 
them. They will stand with us and the rest of the civilized world in 
rejecting terrorism and expelling terrorists from their own countries 
and their havens in the world.
  Paradoxically, every day we are fighting the war in Iraq we are 
weakening our defenses against terrorism. Every day we make peace in 
Iraq, help rebuild Iraq, help rebuild Afghanistan, we are strengthening 
our defenses against terrorism.
  The war against terrorism will be won by building a peaceful world, 
by building a prosperous world, for the multitudes, not just the 
millionaires. Raising standards of living, social justice and the rule 
of law--all that will foster democracy; not military occupation or 
provisional authorities, not prisoner abuses or more armored tanks.
  So, tell us your plan, Mr. President, as we approach Memorial Day. 
Tell us how you will bring our 134,000 troops in Iraq safely home, and 
when. And tell us what course we are on; military escalation or 
peaceful cooperation? Nation bombing or nation building? Financial 
bankruptcy or global prosperity?
  You are asking your fellow citizens for 4 more years, Mr. President. 
Tell us first what course we are on.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I have an amendment to the National Defense 
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 to expand the Mentor-Protege 
program to include service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses and 
qualified HUBZone small business concerns as eligible participants. 
Four years ago I worked closely with Chairman Warner to extend the 
benefits of this successful program to women-owned small businesses.
  As chair of the Small Business Committee, it is my responsibility to 
create an environment where small businesses can flourish and apply 
their talents to the many pressing needs facing our government. The 
primary issue for small business is access to the Federal marketplace 
and the opportunity to compete. When small businesses are denied the 
opportunity to participate in the Federal procurement process, the 
result for our government is a dramatically reduced contractor base, 
and the mounting lost opportunity cost of choosing among fewer 
innovative firms to deliver products and services at lower prices.
  For the past several years, the Department of Defense has had a 
program in place to try to develop and maintain small disadvantaged- 
and women-owned vendors as a vital part of our Nation's defense 
industrial base. This program has also been a principal source of 
opportunity for these firms by offsetting some of the other Federal 
procurement practices, specifically contract bundling, that have 
squeezed small business out of contracting.
  Small businesses play a critical role in our Nation's economic and 
homeland security. Small businesses are currently the leading job 
creators in our Nation's economy and are responsible for more than 75 
percent of net new jobs in America.
  However, millions of Americans today continue to struggle to find 
jobs. Hardest hit are the Nation's inner cities and depressed rural 
areas that face poverty year after year.
  By locating in a historically underutilized business zone--HUBZone, 
more than 10,000 small businesses have responded to the call to make a 
difference in these underserved communities and to strengthen our 
economic security. Congress needs to do its part by making the DoD a 
frequent customer of these small businesses, so we can help them 
compete effectively in the marketplace and create more jobs.
  The Federal government, including the DoD, can and should also do 
more to meet its commitment to small businesses owned by veterans, 
including service-disabled veterans. As committee chair, I am dedicated 
to ensuring that these individuals who have sacrificed so much to 
defend free competitive enterprise are provided with increased 
opportunities to perform Federal contracts, especially contracts for 
weapons, equipment, and services for our warfighters.
  In the fiscal year 1991 National Defense Authorization Act, the 
Congress adopted a provision to help small disadvantaged firms develop 
the technical infrastructure necessary to perform Federal contracts 
effectively. This pilot program, the Mentor-Protege program, provided 
for prime contractors to either be reimbursed for their added costs in 
providing technical assistance to certain small firms, or to receive 
credit for accomplishing their subcontracting plans in lieu of 
reimbursement. Four years ago, I sponsored legislation that now enables 
women-owned firms to participate in the program.
  Experience under the Mentor-Protege pilot program has been positive. 
Mentor firms have demonstrated that they can help train small 
disadvantaged- and women-owned protege firms to develop the 
infrastructure, necessary to be successful in large Federal contracts. 
As these successful proteges graduate, mentors can open their doors to 
the next generation of firms eager to contract with DoD as suppliers 
and subcontractors.
  The program clearly has contributed to the success of bringing small 
disadvantaged- and women-owned businesses into DoD contract work. Over 
the last four years the DoD has increased the volume of dollars awarded 
to small disadvantaged businesses by more than 180 percent and the 
dollars awarded to women-owned firms by nearly 100 percent.
  I ask that we expand participation to businesses owned by service-
disabled veterans and businesses that locate in severely economically 
distressed areas. In so doing, we enhance the business competitiveness 
of these classes of firms and strengthen our defense industrial base by 
generating waves of small businesses prepared to supply goods and 
services in defense of our Nation.
  I urge my colleagues to accept this amendment.
  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I also have an amendment to Section 833 of 
the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 providing 
for improvements and accountability measures in the test program which 
permits large prime contractors to develop company- or unit-wide 
subcontracting plans.
  This amendment is designed to ensure that the test program undergoes 
appropriate evaluation and monitoring in order to enable accurate 
assessment of the effects of the test approach on subcontracting 
opportunities for small business.
  Currently, the Federal Acquisition Regulation and customary 
procurement practices require prime contractors to prepare 
subcontracting plans with a particular contract or potential contract 
in mind. The test program, which operates as an exception to this rule, 
was authorized in the National Defense Authorization Act for FYs 1990 
and 1991. The purpose of the test program was to explore whether 
comprehensive subcontract planning could prove to be an adequate 
alternative for achieving meaningful small business subcontracting at 
lesser cost.
  In April 2004, the General Accounting Office issued a report entitled 
``Contract Management: DoD Needs Measures for Small Business 
Contracting and Better Data on Foreign Subcontracts,'' GAO-04-381, 
where it found the test program's results inconclusive and criticized 
the Defense Department for failing to adopt measurement metrics to 
meaningfully evaluate the test program. Despite this report, the Armed 
Services Committee approved a five-year extension of the test program 
in Section 833 of the Act.
  As chair of the Small Business Committee, I am deeply concerned that 
the program fails to live up to its purpose as a test, and I question 
the prudence of extending this test program without proper standards 
and procedures to measure its success. My amendment provides a certain 
deadline for the DoD to institute the needed measurement metrics and 
freezes the expansion of the program until these metrics are in place. 
The amendment also provides for oversight by the GAO.

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