Making Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for the Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2006

MAKING EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2006
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Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I support the increased funding for border security that is provided by the Gregg and Reid amendments. This funding for replacing and upgrading the equipment and vehicles that we need to protect our borders is vital to our security. Of course, border security alone will not solve our immigration problem, and I am committed to working toward comprehensive immigration reform. But providing much needed resources to those who are working to secure our borders is a critical part of guaranteeing our national security and dealing with our broken immigration system.

Although both amendments would provide this funding, only Senator Gregg's was offset. The spending of this Republican-controlled Congress has been out of control, and it is beyond time to rein it in. The Gregg amendment is a start. The 2.75-percent cut to the defense portions of this bill will not come out of important items to protect our troops. I would never consider supporting any measure that threatened their safety. This is supposed to be an emergency funding bill, but there are billions of dollars of nonemergency items in the bloated defense portion of this bill that have nothing to do with protecting our troops and have no business in this supplemental--items that can be cut to pay for the real border security needs funded in both amendments. Some examples include the unrequested funding for V-22 Ospreys and C-17s and the clearly nonemergency Army modularity program. Our spending on our national security is also completely imbalanced, with almost all resources going to the Department of Defense and very little to other important national security priorities such as border security and the U.S. Coast Guard. The Gregg amendment brings back some balance to our spending.

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