Motion to Go to Conference on H.R. 3043, Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008
MOTION TO GO TO CONFERENCE ON H.R. 3043, DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 -- (House of Representatives - October 31, 2007)
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Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I want to thank my friend for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I think this is a sad day for our country, because we put into place several years ago what we called a bridge fund. I call it the ammo, the armor, the equipment fund. That was a fund that we added to the Defense bill to carry our troops over during the winter months before that spring supplemental, before that extra funding came about in the springtime of the next year.
That is important for them, and that gave them a certain confidence level that they were going to be funded without having to take money out of the cash register for the next year, have to delay training exercises, have to delay the equipping of forces back here in the United States.
And you know something? We had a bill that was ready to go here. The Defense appropriations bill is something that clearly would sail through, the President would sign it, and there was no risk in this bill that would fund our operations and our warfighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Democrat leadership now has injected risk, because you have hooked it up with a bill that the President said he is going to veto. That injects risk into this very, very difficult operation.
So what do we have with our soldiers, our sailors, our airmen, our marines in Afghanistan and Iraq? We have got the uncertainties of war, the dangers of war. We have got the uncertainties that attend their families back here in the United States. And now the Democrat leadership has injected another uncertainty, an uncertainty that they will be funded fully in these difficult months.
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So you took away this bridge fund, what I call the ammo, the armor, the equipment fund, and the answer you have given us is, well, if the President caves, then the troops will get the money. Holding our troops, our forces, hostage during a time of war is something that this body has never done.
I would hope that the Democrat leadership would make an about-face on this. I would hope you would adopt the great position of Democrat Senator Henry ``Scoop'' Jackson, who said, ``In time of war, the best politics is no politics.''
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