Secure Fence Act of 2006--Resumed
SECURE FENCE ACT OF 2006--Resumed -- (Senate - September 28, 2006)
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Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I rise to express my strong support for the conference report on H. R. 5631. This bill, as the chairman has noted, includes some $436.6 billion for the Department of Defense, including $70 billion to help offset the cost of war in Iraq and the global war on terrorism for the first several months of fiscal year 2007.
I want to remind my colleagues that the bill does not include funding, as noted by the chairman, for the Defense Health Program or for environmental and real property maintenance and related programs.
By agreement between the Appropriations Committees in both Houses, these amounts will be carried in the Military Construction bill which has not yet passed the Senate.
Accounting for this change, the bill is $9.3 billion higher than the bill which passed the Senate. Of this amount, approximately $4.7 billion is in emergency funding for the war on terror, and the balance is for regular appropriations.
This bill provides for the essential requirements of the Department of Defense and is a fair compromise between the priorities of the House and the Senate.
To my colleagues on the democratic side, I would say this is a good bill.
It was fashioned in a bi-partisan manner and it funds our critical defense needs.
Several items which were added to this bill by democratic amendments are addressed favorably in this conference report.
The agreement urges the President to report his plans in the event of increased sectarian violence in Iraq. It urges the director of national intelligence to assess many elements of the potential for civil war in Iraq.
It includes an additional $100 million to help eradicate poppies in Afghanistan and it addresses concerns raised in the Senate about increasing funding to find the leaders of al-Qaida.
I point out to the Senate that all the members of the conference on both sides of the aisle supported this agreement.
I fully support the bill that the Chairman is recommending, and I urge my colleagues to support the measure as well.
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