Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2006--Conference Report

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006--CONFERENCE REPORT

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Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, the Senate is now on its way to passing the Defense appropriations bill, which will provide essential funds to our troops. The U.S. Armed Forces are comprised of some of the finest men and women our country has to offer. Each of these brave individuals has made the commitment to serve our country, during times of war or peace, and each is deserving of the support of a grateful nation.

I particularly wish to salute the fine members of the West Virginia National Guard who have time and again demonstrated their commitment to serving our State and our Nation. These citizen-soldiers have served in all corners of the world while balancing their obligations to their families, to their employers, and to their communities. The Defense appropriations bill is important to our National Guard and all the members of our military. I am proud to have worked with my colleagues to expedite passage of this essential legislation.

The Senate is proceeding in a wise course after the cloture vote this morning. The most controversial part of the conference report will be removed, clearing the way for the Defense appropriations bill to pass the Senate and be sent on its way to the White House. It is unfortunate that the deletion of the most controversial provision that was attached to the bill in conference will also result in eliminating needed funds for hurricane relief, LIHEAP, homeland security, and border security. Congress should not delay in providing additional funds for these purposes. There are emergency needs in each of these areas that must be met with quick action.

While the ANWR provision will be removed from the bill, I continue to have serious concerns about the avian flu-related liability provisions that were slipped into the conference report without debate. These liability provisions did not appear in either the House- or the Senate-passed bill. These provisions were not in the materials presented to the conference committee during its deliberations. It was not until the dead of night on this past Sunday, after signatures had already been collected on the conference report, that the Republican majority slipped these provisions into the bill before the Senate today. What an insult to the legislative process.

It makes sense for Congress to take steps to encourage companies to develop and manufacture lifesaving flu vaccines. Manufacturers and health professionals acting in good faith to protect the public health, by developing and distributing critical vaccines, should not be unfairly penalized for their efforts to protect the American people from the horrors of a pandemic disease.

However, our country has a moral obligation to look out for those who may become seriously ill as a result of these vaccines. We are talking about the lives of real American people. There ought to be compensation available to those persons who may suffer adverse effects from these kinds of vaccines.

But the liability amendment slipped into the bill does not contain any meaningful provisions establishing a fair compensation system to protect vaccine recipients. Americans who pull up their sleeves to receive an emergency flu vaccine must be provided with some assurance that they would not face economic catastrophe should they be harmed.

All of this comes as our country is coming to grips with the threat that the avian flu might spread to our shores. A flu pandemic is one of the most dangerous threats the United States faces today. Medical experts warn that a global, cataclysmic pandemic is not a question of if but when. Like any natural disaster, it could hit at anytime. And when it does, it could take the lives of tens of millions of people.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, an avian flu pandemic would deliver a devastating $675 billion blow to the U.S. economy. This administration has failed to adequately respond to safeguard the American people and limit the human and economic cost of such a pandemic.

In the event of a flu pandemic, hundreds of millions of Americans will need to be vaccinated as quickly as possible. Yet our current public health infrastructure is alarmingly ill-equipped for this threat. This administration and the Republican-led Congress have weakened the health care infrastructure of this country by starving it of needed funding. The administration has been engaged in a relentless campaign to arbitrarily cut Medicaid and other vital safety-net programs that protect the health of the poor and disabled.

I am also disappointed that the majority chose to limit funds for vaccines, medicines, and other tools to combat the avian flu to just $3.8 billion. That level of funding is $4.3 billion below the level that the Senate approved just 2 months ago.

The American people deserve better from their elected representatives. They deserve a coherent plan to combat the looming threat of a flu pandemic with significant resources devoted to protecting the public's health.

Finally, Mr. President, I regret that so little attention has been paid during the recent debate on this bill to the most important issue facing our country. The ongoing war in Iraq has so far cost the lives of 2,155 members of the U.S. Armed Forces. Including the so-called ``bridge fund'' of $50 billion that is appropriated in this bill, our Nation will have dedicated $259 billion to carry out the war in Iraq. What an enormous sum. More than a quarter of a trillion dollars has been spent on this war that should never have begun.

What is more, the newspapers are full of stories that the President is going to ask Congress for another $100 billion in the coming months to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These huge sums of money are being requested and spent for the war in Iraq with no idea of how the White House intends to get our troops out of that country. The President has taken to the speaking circuit to try to rally support for the war, but his statements are simply variations on a theme: stay the course, stay the course, stay the course.

Americans are asking questions that the White House has so far refused to address. How much longer will our troops be in Iraq? How many more Americas will perish in this costly war? How many more billions will be spent to support the administration's misguided policies in Iraq?

Instead of getting answers to these questions, and instead of changing course in the war in Iraq, this appropriations bill includes $50 billion to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite the fact that the President did not request a single dime in his budget for these costs. Let me say again: the Congress is appropriating billions more for the war in Iraq without a request from the President. Is this any way to pay for a war?

Although Senators must do our part in providing for our troops serving in harm's way, I do not think that our troops are served by having Congress appropriate funds for the war in Iraq without any explanation by the President or the Secretary of Defense about how these funds are to be used. If the administration wants additional funds to prosecute the war in Iraq, the administration should answer the tough questions about its policy for getting our country out of Iraq.

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