May 11, 2006

Mr. Speaker,

I rise in opposition to this Defense Authorization Bill, H.R. 5122. Only a few months after ruthlessly slashing $40 billion in health care, education and job training benefits for working Americans, the Republicans have shamelessly brought forth a Defense Authorization bill that wastefully spends taxpayer dollars and does nothing to make this country any safer.

This bill clearly demonstrates that this Republican Congress has a habitual problem of fiscal mismanagement. This legislation spends billions on the development of ineffective or duplicative weapons systems that pad the pockets of big defense contractors. In turn, these defense contractors thank their Republican sugar daddies by filling their campaign coffers.

H.R. 5122 wastefully authorizes $9.3 billion on pie-in-the-sky Star Wars missile defense, a $184 million increase over President Bush’s request and $2 billion more than the current level of spending. Rather than allocate billions for a Cold War weapon system that will never work, Republicans in Congress should address the real security threat posed by weapons that can easily be delivered or smuggled into America in a suitcase or container.

The bill provides additional funding to build ships that the Navy has not requested and does not need. The Republican legislation also allocates nearly $46 billion for 20 F/A-22 Raptors, $1.4 billion more than President Bush requested and $2.9 billion more than is currently spent. Yet these planes were initially justified as necessary to compete with a new generation of Soviet fighters that no longer exists.

Since the collapse of the Russian air force, there is no nation that has, or is planning to have, fighter jets as dominant as those the U.S. Air Force currently employs in combat. In Iraq, Kosovo and Afghanistan, the Air Force has demonstrated the superiority of existing U.S. planes. In addition, the GAO recently reported that the costs of the F/A 22 Raptors have ballooned to $1.3 billion more than was budgeted for by the Air Force. Where does accountability begin?

H.R. 5122 does not require the President to provide an exit strategy out of Iraq. Even after spending $315 billion on a misguided Iraq War, the Bush Administration has no clue on how to resolve the situation or an idea of how to get American soldiers out of the conflict.

It is time to stop giving the President a blank check to fight an aimless war. The only thing that the $50 billion outlay in this bill guarantees is that the U.S. will be in Iraq longer than is necessary and that more American soldiers and Iraqi civilians will die without just cause.

I am also very concerned that certain members of Congress have decided to support chaplains who want to push their own religious agenda rather than the military’s commitment to religious tolerance. When chaplains join the military, they accept a duty to serve the military’s mission in addition to their mission to God. In providing spiritual guidance to our soldiers, chaplains should never carry out their duty in a manner that divides or alienates soldiers of different faiths. Chaplains who press ahead with their own agenda ahead of the military’s mission threaten the cohesiveness of military units and the effectiveness of our soldiers in carrying out their duties.

I urge my colleagues to vote against this wasteful and irresponsible bill. It is time we had a defense budget that lives within its means, stops wasting hard earned tax dollars on useless weapon systems, and accounts for what is truly required in Iraq.