Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Iraq and Afghanistan Security and Reconstruction Act, 2004-Continued

EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN SECURITY AND RECONSTRUCTION ACT, 2004—CONTINUED

AMENDMENT NO. 1812, AS MODIFIED

(Purpose: To increase the amount provided for the Army for procurement of High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles, to require an Army reevaluation of requirements and options for procuring armored security vehicles, and to provide an offset)

Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise to offer an amendment to ensure that our troops in Iraq and other dangerous areas throughout the world, many of whom are Reservists and members of the National Guard, have the equipment they need to protect themselves. In particular, I would like to discuss the uparmored Humvees which soldiers need to protect themselves from the threat of RPGs and mines and weapons that are inflicting casualties today as we speak in Iraq.

To effectively carry out the mission, Army officials have said that they need more Humvees, uparmored Humvees. I believe them. The administration in this bill failed to fully meet that request.

My amendment is designed to meet the needs of the Army today as they face these numerous threats around the globe. The amendment is cosponsored by Senators Bayh and Kennedy. It would add funding to this supplemental request to buy additional uparmored Humvees and would also direct the Army to reevaluate its requirements for the armored security vehicle.

The HMMWV, or high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle, better known as the Humvee, is the workhorse of the
United States. It is being used around the globe today in conflicts from Afghanistan to Iraq to the Balkans. The uparmored Humvee is a variation of the basic vehicle. It was designed to offer increased protection to troops from small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades, and blasts from mines.

It was designed primarily for military police and special operations personnel, exactly the type of soldiers being called upon to do very dangerous missions in Iraq today.

The armored security vehicle, or the ASV, is also a vehicle in the Army inventory. It is designed to complement the uparmored Humvee. There are very few of them, but it is a requirement that I believe the Army should study again.

In July, I visited Iraq and had the opportunity to meet with my constituents from the Rhode Island National Guard, the 115th Military Police Company, and 119th Military Police Company, the 118th Military Police Battalion. It was on the tarmac at Baghdad International Airport. I got off the aircraft with my colleagues. I rushed over to the formation of these military police men and women. I began to speak with them. The first request that I got was repeated several times over:
We need uparmored Humvees. We are in a dangerous situation. We are patrolling the roads of Iraq. We see other units with these vehicles. We need them.

When I came back to the United States, I was convinced that we needed more uparmored Humvees. In the intervening weeks, the Rhode Island National Guard, 115th Military Police Company, has lost three soldiers. Two were killed when an improvised explosive device, a 155-millimeter shell, exploded underneath their regular Humvee. No one can determine whether or not an uparmored Humvee would have saved the lives of these two soldiers, Staff Sergeant Joseph Camara and Sergeant Charles Caldwell. I know having such a vehicle would add to the confidence and security of the troops.

A few days ago Specialist Michael Andrade of the 115th Military Police was killed, again in a Humvee in an accident involving a convoy operation in which a tanker truck crashed into his vehicle. Last Monday evening I was there in Rhode Island when they brought Specialist Andrade's body home to his family. This Saturday he will be buried in Rhode Island. I know you can't determine whether or not this type of vehicle would have saved this young soldier's life. But I can tell you, if they had a choice, all of our military police, all of our soldiers in Iraq would prefer to be in an uparmored Humvee than a Humvee without the armor, and their families would make that choice, also.

It is clear that we need more. This bill contains more vehicles. I commend the President for that proposal. I believe we need more than even what is included in this bill.

When I returned from Iraq, I wrote to Secretary Rumsfeld. I also called the Army. At that time I was verbally told by the Army that the requirement for additional Humvees was about 500. But then as the summer wore on, several things became apparent. This insurgency was extremely serious and extremely lethal. Also that the requirement for uparmored Humvees was going up. Indeed, I believe—I have said this before—that we could be involved and will likely be involved in Iraq for years, not months, stretching perhaps to 10 years. These are the types of vehicles that are crucial to effective operation in an occupation force as we have in Iraq.

Now, my initial response from the Army was that they need 500 more. By September 8, the Army sent a formal response indicating that the requirement now is 1,723 uparmored Humvees and 1,461 will be sent immediately to the theater. I commend the Army because they have tried their best to move as many available vehicles into the theater of Iraq as possible.

Now, 619 vehicles were coming off the assembly line and being sent directly to Iraq; 430 were being pulled from units in the United States and Europe; another 412 were pulled out of the Balkans. So we are trying to meet the need in Iraq, but we are doing it by taking these vehicles from other potentially dangerous areas, such as the Balkans. Also, vehicles were taken from the units in the United States—we hope they are training on these vehicles in preparation to go overseas.

I believe indeed that this requirement will increase, and in fact what we have seen throughout the course of the last several months is the Army and the Department of Defense seriously reevaluating the need for uparmored Humvees. They have concluded that these uparmored Humvees are indeed necessary.

We have received information that the Army in fact has a requirement in excess of 3,400 vehicles. Again, just a few weeks ago, the requirement was 1,700; now the requirement is 3,400 vehicles. They say the best way to accommodate future funding for increased production would be to use the Iraqi Freedom Fund. I propose to do that. In fact, OSD has concurred with this approach. The Secretary of Defense has concurred. What we are waiting on is a validation of how many of these vehicles can be produced at the assembly point.

So my amendment is straightforward. It requests additional money in the amount of approximately $191 million from the Iraqi Freedom Fund to buy 800 additional vehicles, or so many as may be acquired with that money. In fact, I hope we can, in the next year, buy even more. The analysis by myself and my staff suggests this money would be sufficient to fully operate the production line and get all the vehicles possible that we need.

The Iraqi Freedom Fund in this bill contains $1.9 billion, so there are sufficient resources. I believe we should do this and we should do it promptly. The indication from the Army is that they need the vehicles, and also if we act in this appropriations bill, we can speed those vehicles to Iraq.

As I said earlier, there is another aspect of this, and that is the armored security vehicle. We are asking the Army to look back at this requirement and reevaluate it.

I will conclude by taking the advice of Secretary Rumsfeld that it is not necessary to listen to the media but listen to the soldiers. I have a letter from a young lieutenant in Afghanistan. Here is what he writes:

I am the leader of one platoon of many here trained Stateside for dismounted missions and handed uparmored Humvees upon arrival at our firebases. My strong NCO's have adapted and worked hard to train on this different platform. I feel it is criminal, however, to have sent so many units here without Stateside training on either the .    .    . uparmored Humvee or its complementary weapon, the MK-19 auto grenade launcher and M2 .50 caliber machine gun.

He goes on to say:

Our mechanics, for example, have no experience with the uparmored Humvees and are too few to fix vehicles which have been driven hard for at least 18 months on the awful "roads" here. Without vehicles, we have no mobility. Without mobility, we cannot either protect the reconstruction teams or interdict terrorists/criminals intent on rocketing our bases and mining the roads.

That is the viewpoint of one of these magnificent young soldiers in Afghanistan working with the vehicles. He appreciates the value of the vehicles. I think every soldier, every squad that has missions like this, whether in Afghanistan or Iraq, should have these vehicles, and that is the intent of this amendment. Further, I will add that one of the suggestions to me in his letter is:

Purchase new uparmored Humvees for Afghanistan to replace the ones about to die or send qualified mechanics with the requisite parts to fix them.

That could be written by any soldier in Afghanistan or Iraq, and indeed there are many in Iraq, particularly, that do not even have access to uparmored Humvees. I will conclude by thanking the chairman and the staff for their assistance on this amendment. I also thank the chairman sincerely not only for this effort but for almost $900 million of additional funding for the Army, for vests, for a host of equipment. I also understand from our discussion that he feels as strongly as I do about this issue and will do his best in conference to ensure these additional Humvees are provided.

I yield the floor.