Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2007

Floor Speech

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2007 -- (House of Representatives - August 04, 2007)

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the Fiscal Year 2008 Appropriations bill. I commend Chairman Murtha and Ranking Member YOUNG for crafting a bipartisan measure that carefully balances support for or troops and their families and fiscal responsibility. It maintains and enhances our Nation's commitment to a defense second to none and our abiding responsibility to protect and defend our Nation from all enemies at home and abroad.

As a member of this distinguished subcommittee, I am pleased with the body of work that we produced under the strong leadership of Chairman Murtha. The Defense subcommittee held over 30 hearings this year, nearly double that of the previous Congress. We received testimony from dozens of witnesses--from both inside and outside the Department of Defense--in order to allow the Members and our extraordinary staff to fashion this well balanced bill.

Mr. Chairman, this has been a difficult year for our Nation. The economy is in fragile shape, the public is losing faith in this body and the war in Iraq is taking a serious toll on the morale and well being of U.S. soldiers. As this conflict extends well into its 5th year, I must soberly remind each and every Member of this body that 3,651 U.S. soldiers have been killed and 27,104 injured. Those are staggering numbers.

Thankfully, this bill seeks to provide robust funding for those programs most important to the soldiers and to their families. The Committee fully-funded a 3.5 percent military pay raise without charging higher health care fees for military retirees, as the Administration proposed to do. Included in this bill is just under three billion dollars for family advocacy programs, childcare centers and dependent's education programs.

I am also very supportive of strong language and related funding in this bill providing for increased oversight and accountability of contractors and contracting out services. We have been calling on the Department of Defense to get its fiscal house in order for years. They chose to ignore Congress. This bill provides much needed guidance on the steps they must take to increase transparency on how they spend the public's money. Corruption and fiscal irresponsibility cannot stand. I agree with my Chairman, the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania, who maintains: ``The Committee's fiduciary responsibility to the American taxpayer requires holding accountable organizations, officials, and programs that have performed poorly. Moreover, wasted resources and procedural abuses ultimately come at the expense of our military men and women.'' As a result, we provide increased funds for the Contract Audit Agency, the Contract Management Agency, and the Department of Defense Inspector General. We also provide authority for the DoD to hire up to 500 GSA and GAG efficiency experts for assistance.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I want to draw each Member's attention to language in this bill that notes the Department of Defense has been slow ``to establish aggressive goals and timelines to achieve increased energy efficiency.'' The utter dependence of the United States on imported petroleum creates the major strategic vulnerability for our Nation, coupled with nearly half of the energy supply of the United States dependent on foreign sources. From the economically damaging Arab oil embargoes of 1973-74 and 1979 to the current recession precipitated by rising oil prices, which began in 1999, economic forces outside our borders have too often shaken the economic stability of the United States. We must shift America's dependence away from foreign petroleum as an energy source toward alternative, renewable, domestic sources. We must aim to balance the current petroleum trade deficit by replacing foreign sources of supply with steady increases of domestically-produced fuels and power system.

The Department of Defense is the largest purchaser of fuel in the United States. It maintains the largest energy footprint in our Govemment. I believe the Department of Defense can and must lead all other agencies in making the United States energy independent again.

I encourage every Member to vote in favor of this bill.

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