Done Deal

House lawmakers today passed a revised version of the fiscal year 2010 supplemental spending bill by a voice vote, with some voicing concerns the bill won't do much good.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-WI) "reluctantly" decided to vote against the supplemental:

I have a double, and conflicting, obligation. As Chairman, I have the obligation to bring this supplemental before the House to allow the institution to work its will.

But I also have the obligation to my conscience to indicate -- by my individual vote -- my profound skepticism that this action will accomplish much more than to serve as a recruiting incentive for those who most want to do us ill.

Last year, as the Administration was undertaking its Afghanistan review, I expressed my concern that the best policy in the world could not succeed if we did not have the tools on the ground -- namely the effective cooperation of the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan -- to accomplish it.

I submit today, that those critical tools are not at hand. The Afghan government has not demonstrated the focused determination, reliability and judgment necessary to bring this effort to a rational and successful conclusion.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) and Ranking Member Buck McKeon (R-CA) each supported the bill, saying failure to pass it would cause the Pentagon to furlough civilian workers. Skelton said:

Today we take a vital and overdue step towards fulfilling one of Congress’s most basic and important responsibilities. We will provide the men and women of the United States military with the resources they need to carry out their missions in Iraq and Afghanistan -- missions for which they are risking their lives. While I wish we had been able to send this bill to the President sooner, passage of this bill today will ensure that funding is provided to the Department of Defense without any operational disruptions.

Without this bill, the Department of Defense would be forced to use inefficient and costly budget work-arounds throughout the month of August. According to testimony the Armed Services Committee received last week, without this bill the DOD would be forced in September to furlough thousands of civilian employees, and would even be forced to reprogram funding to pay the troops. Instead, by passing this bill today on a strong bipartisan vote, we can uphold the best traditions of Congress in support of national security and avoid the possibility of crippling funding shortfalls at the Department of Defense.

I urge my colleagues to vote for passage of H.R. 4899, the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2010, and forward it to the President for his signature.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the long-delayed troop funding supplemental. Failure to pass this supplemental before the August work period would result in severe consequences to our military departments.

Last Thursday, Under Secretaries from the Army, Navy and Air Force testified at our committee that without this supplemental, their services are past or dangerously close to the point of having to furlough Department of Defense employees.

According to Robert Work, Under Secretary of the Navy, 'failure to pass the supplemental before the recess would . . . hamstring the department's operations for the remainder of the year and significantly disrupt operations within the Department.'

Mr. Speaker, these are Departments at war. The President sent us his troop funding request in February. Our former commander in Afghanistan, General McChrystal, urged its passage by Memorial Day.  Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said if the supplemental was not passed by the Fourth of July recess, the Department would have to resort to doing 'stupid things.' And now we are 60 days past Memorial Day.

Those of us here in Congress cannot lose sight of the broader perspective: our brave military men and women, and their civilian counterparts, are in the midst of a tough fight that is critical to U.S. national security. Cutting off their funding in the middle of that fight is tantamount to abandonment. I'm confident General Petraeus and our troops will succeed in Afghanistan if given the time, space, and resources they need to complete their mission.

In December and again when he tapped General Petraeus, the President reminded us why we are in Afghanistan. It was the epicenter of where al Qaeda planned and launched the 9/11 attacks against innocent Americans.

The timeline for success in Afghanistan cannot be dictated by arbitrary political clocks here in Washington; it must be driven by the operational clock in Kabul, Kandahar, and the Afghan countryside. We all hope and pray that this goal can be accomplished by July 2011, but conditions on the ground must dictate the pace of any withdrawal.

The Democrat leadership in the House has tried to advance their domestic political agenda on the backs of our forces, while at the same time permitting one anti-war measure after another to be debated on the House floor. This is cynical and wrong. A vote on a clean troop funding bill is long overdue.  We should have completed this work months ago -- not in the last minutes before we adjourn for the August work period.  We must send this troop funding to the President without further delay.

I encourage all members to send a clear message to our military men and women by supporting this critical troop funding bill -- this Congress believes in you, we support you, and we honor your dedication.