Mr. President, I have a couple of concerns here. One is a driving concern. After having served on the House Armed Services Committee before and for the last 12 years on the Senate Armed Services…
Mr. President, I have a couple of concerns here. One is a driving concern. After having served on the House Armed Services Committee before and for the last 12 years on the Senate Armed Services Committee, I am deeply distressed that we did not get our MilCon Appropriations bill passed. I don't think a lot of people realize how significant it is that we get it passed for this fiscal year, 2007.
The partisan issues that some people are trying to tie up on the floor are nowhere near as important as this issue, and I am talking about some of the other bills. It is true that we need to have the DC appropriations bill, but it is not life-threatening and certainly not going to result in the loss of lives of our fighting troops. Labor-HHS is important but not as important as this bill. Commerce-State- Justice--a lot of those items can be put into a CR. I would have no problem with a continuing resolution. But as far as this bill is concerned, if we don't do it now, there are a lot of items in conjunction with our BRAC process that are not going to happen and have to happen and are life-threatening to our troops.
I compliment Senator Hutchison, who was chairman of the Subcommittee on Military Construction. She tried so hard in the last 2 days of the last session to get this bill through. Quite frankly, it wasn't really a problem in the Senate as much as it was in the other body. We tried very hard. We talked with a number of people and were unable to get that bill done.
Over the past few years, the military has sought to reshape itself out of a Cold War footing into a modern, more modular force. It has tried to reconstitute its equipment, while at the same time fighting a war in Iraq and Afghanistan. It has been forced to come to Congress for supplementals to meet just the bare minimum requirements of fighting the war and rebuilding the military as is so necessary.
So we have stretched them every way we can. We have cut into almost every program, essential initiatives such as the Future Combat System. That is a recognition, after the 1990s, when we let our modernization slide and a lot of our military needs, to bring us up so that when we send our kids into battle, we send them with the very best of equipment. If we look at some of our ground equipment, such as our artillery pieces, it is World War II technology. It is the old Paladin where they actually have to swab the breech after every shot.
The Future Combat System came up, and there was a recognition that we should have an army, a ground force that is faster, more agile, more transportable, more modern than it is today. Every week that goes by that we don't get this done, it is causing the Future Combat System-- there are about 19 elements of it--to move to the right and delay this from taking place.
The fiscal year 2007 Military Construction appropriations bill was not passed into law. The continuing resolution, as currently enacted, does not allow the Department of Defense to proceed with over $17 billion in new construction and BRAC projects authorized by Congress in the 2007 authorization bill.
Let me mention what will happen if we don't do this. There are so many things having to do with the BRAC process. I opposed the last BRAC round. We went ahead and had it, and I think that is probably the last we will have for a long period of time. It has a deadline of 2011. If we don't get this bill passed--by the way, I have introduced S. 113. We have a number of cosponsors. Most of the Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee are on it.
The 1st Armored Division will have to stay in Germany if we don't get this passed. If that happens, we are not going to be able to have the two modular combat brigade teams we so critically need on the front lines. We are talking about the war that is taking place right now and why we need to get this MILCON appropriations bill passed.
The Army National Guard and Reserve lack $1.1 billion to construct and replace aviation support facilities. They cannot function without these facilities. The postponement of construction of 250 new homes at the naval base in Guam and the Marine Corps logistics base in Barstow, CA, are just some of the housing needs that will not be able to be continued. Of course, they will cost more money the longer we put them off.
We opened up some serious shortfalls in our UHF--that is, ultra high frequency--satellite communications capabilities. Two of the $6.5 million mobile user objective systems ground control tracking stations were slated for Hawaii and Sigonella, Italy. Without the stations, the already-funded satellites--we have the satellites ready to go--cannot launch until we get this bill passed.
We went through months of agonizing discomfort in deciding what are we going to do with the F-22, C-17, C-5, C-9, and C-40 in terms of the new locations. That has all been determined. It has been outlined in BRAC, but we can't do it until we have the hangars to take care of them, to get them into the new areas.
What we are talking about are items that directly affect the warfighting effort. The Predator, for example, has the tactical air control program that should be supporting the Army brigade combat teams.
I think we all know our ground forces have to have support, either close air support or artillery support on the ground. We can't do the close air support if we don't have the appropriations bill passed.
The Predator mission--a lot of people are not aware of this; they think of it as being intelligence-gathering agencies and a communications system targeting and retargeting on the ground. While that is very important and it has to be done, a lot of people don't realize the Predator also has the capability of firing a rocket. So we need to have that program. We cannot have it unless we get this bill passed.
The military is going to lose a lot if we don't get this bill passed. When we look at the military construction that is going on in the continental United States and we see the community support--in my State of Oklahoma, we have five major military installations. They are located near major cities. Vance Air Force Base is at Enid, OK. Then we have Altus, Lawton, McAlester, Oklahoma City, and Midwest City. We have always done well in our BRAC process because we have greater community support than most other installations. But when you have a community that has made a commitment toward MILCON predicated on the assumption that we are going to pass our Military Construction appropriations bill and then we don't do it, they could very well renege on their commitment for housing, hospitalization, and childcare. It is far more significant than most people realize. If we don't pass the needed funding, the results will be very serious.
I have in front of me a letter signed by Army Secretary Harvey and General Schoomaker:
The potential negative effects on operational readiness
cannot be overemphasized; the Army's ability to prosecute the
Global War on Terrorism and to prepare for future conflicts
would be severely hampered.
Another letter from Navy Secretary Donald Winter and Marine Corps Commandant GEN James T. Conway and ADM Michael G. Mullen:
The lack of construction money ``is precluding our ability
to provide modern, government owned or privatized quality
housing to our Sailors, Marines and their families at a time
when the Global War on Terror is placing enormous stress on
our military and our military families.''
I am going to be looking for every opportunity to get this bill up for consideration. Again, I am concerned about all appropriations bills, and a continuing resolution, as far as I am concerned, at least is going to take care of those needs. But the one thing it cannot do is take care of the military construction needs we will have to address.
That bill is S. 113. I look forward to it coming up for consideration. We already have, as I mentioned, most members of the Armed Services Committee cosponsoring this legislation.
