Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006
INTELLIGENCE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006 -- (House of Representatives - June 21, 2005)
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Mr. McHUGH. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding me this time.
Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this legislation, H.R. 2475. As the distinguished chairman so graciously recognized, I am one of the newer members of this committee; and I must say in that respect, I am enormously impressed by the bipartisan attitude that all the members bring to this very important issue, that of national security and its interface with our intelligence communities. That is a tribute to all of the members, Democrat and Republican alike, but I think it is a particular tribute to the distinguished gentleman from Michigan (Chairman Hoekstra) and also the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Harman), ranking member, who have worked so well together and provided that leadership of bipartisanship.
The chairman noted, Madam Speaker, that I am a member of the House Committee on Armed Services, and in that capacity I have the honor of serving as chairman of the Military Personnel Subcommittee; and as such, I have been particularly interested in programs that aid the warfighter, those brave men and women who are putting their lives on the line each and every day for our freedoms and for our interests. And I am pleased to report that this legislation contains very important increases in funding for military intelligence programs.
In particular, H.R. 2475 includes significant increases in funding for operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, for the global war on terrorism, and thereby decreases the reliance on supplemental budgeting. Budgeting by supplemental, at least in my opinion, Madam Speaker, is inefficient; and it hinders the effective planning of our intelligence operations. And this bill very importantly takes a major step away from reliance on those supplementals and seeks to provide full funding to fight terrorism and for intelligence operations in Iraq.
There is also increased funding for critical initiatives such as foreign language training for our troops in the field and for greater numbers of defense intelligence analysts. This intelligence authorization bill builds upon actions already taken by the House Committee on Armed Services dictating a career path for military linguists, and we should be very proud of this initiative in these regards.
The net result, Madam Speaker, is that our intelligence personnel and our military will be better trained and equipped to perform their invaluable missions. These are important steps, and they have been taken with the necessary consultation with the Committee on Armed Services. And I am happy to report that the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has worked very closely with the gentleman from California (Chairman Hunter), with the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton), distinguished ranking member, with respect to our authorizations. And I would certainly argue that they complement one another very closely. To the extent that there are differences, and I think differences are and will continue to be inevitable, I know all of us on both sides of the aisle and in both committees will work to constructively breach those differences and bring about agreements on remaining issues as the authorization process continues.
So I urge unanimous support of this very fine piece of legislation.
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