[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 3222]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         DOD FUNDING AMENDMENT

  Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, I rise to express my deep concern that 
the Senate has yet to consider the Defense appropriations bill for 
fiscal year 2011.
  As the Presiding Officer is well aware, we should have completed work 
on this bill and every other appropriations bill before October 1 of 
last year. But with the Department of Defense, this is becoming 
increasingly problematic. For this reason, along with two members of 
the Republican leadership, Senator Alexander and Senator Barrasso, I 
have filed an amendment to the patent reform bill that would fund the 
Department of Defense for the remainder of this fiscal year.
  Just think what we have done the last 3 weeks. We took up an FAA 
reauthorization bill. Then we went on recess for a week. And now we are 
on a patent reform bill. I don't mean to suggest that FAA and patent 
reform are not important--certainly we could have gone without having a 
recess--but both of those bills pale in comparison to the urgency of 
providing our service men and women with the resources they need to 
carry out their mission.
  Secretary Gates, Admiral Mullen, and other military leaders have 
repeatedly and clearly warned us about the dangers of failing to pass a 
full-year Defense funding bill. It is hurting our national security and 
harming our readiness. Secretary Gates' put it bluntly, saying: ``The 
continuing resolution represents a crisis at our doorstep.'' Deputy 
Secretary of Defense William Lynn testified that ``a year-long CR will 
damage national security.''
  At no time in recent memory has Congress failed to pass a Defense 
appropriations bill. Even when there was a year-long continuing 
resolution for most of the government during fiscal year 2007, the 
Congress passed a separate bill funding the Department of Defense. With 
troops in harm's way, now is not the time to break with that precedent.
  If we do not provide the authority for the Air Force to buy unmanned 
aerial vehicles to fly combat air patrols over Afghanistan, the 
fighting there will not be halted until we do so. If we do not act to 
provide the $150 million that has been requested to meet the very 
specific and urgent requirements of our special forces, we will be 
failing those who are truly on the frontlines.
  Secretary Gates has made it clear, military readiness will suffer 
because of fewer flying hours for our pilots, fewer steaming days for 
our ships, and cutbacks in training for home-stationed forces.
  A full year's CR will also delay much needed modernization of our 
military equipment. This would come at a time when our Navy is at its 
smallest size since 1916 and at a time when the aircraft and our Air 
Force inventory are older than at any time since the Air Force was 
created. The Navy will not be able to procure a second Virginia class 
submarine nor a DDG-51 destroyer needed to keep costs down and to 
achieve the minimum size fleet--313 ships--that the Navy has stated is 
the absolute minimum.
  Operating under a full-year's CR also means that the taxpayers are 
going to end up paying more for less. The Navy would likely have to 
renegotiate some of its procurements. The Army has already shut down 
work on the Stryker Mobile Gun System that will likely incur additional 
costs to restart.
  It is also important to recognize that at a time when the American 
public is most concerned about jobs and the economy, the Defense 
appropriations bill provides funds that are the source of thousands of 
jobs in the United States--jobs that will be lost or at least deferred.
  The Secretary of the Navy has said that the combined effects of 
failing to fund the Defense Department will directly affect the 
strength of the industrial base and that more than 10,000 private 
sector jobs at shipyards, factories, and Navy and Marine Corps 
facilities across the country will be jeopardized.
  I could go on and on listing the ways our servicemembers and our DOD 
civilian workforce and the private sector contractors will be affected 
by our failure to act. There is simply no excuse for this Senate not to 
have acted last year on a Defense appropriations bill. Surely, we 
should turn our attention to focusing on the needs of our military 
immediately, and we should heed the warning of Secretary Gates, who 
said:

       That is how you hollow out a military--when your best 
     people, your veterans of multiple combat deployments, become 
     frustrated and demoralized and, as a result, begin leaving 
     military service.

  Let's do what is most important and let's do it now. Let's pass the 
Defense appropriations bill.
  I wish to thank the ranking member of the Budget Committee, Senator 
Sessions, for yielding me time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama.

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