Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2012
Floor Speech
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Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to rise in support of the committee's recommended FY12 Defense appropriations bill.
I'd first like to commend Subcommittee Chairman Young, Ranking Member Dicks, Chairman Rogers, the subcommittee members and staff on both sides of the aisle for continuing the fine tradition of bipartisan cooperation and teamwork in producing this bill.
Of note, the bill provides $530.5 billion in total for the DOD in fiscal year 2012, $17 billion more than the current level. In addition, the bill provides $118.7 billion for contingency funding for the ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It continues our longstanding commitment to our troops and their families by including a pay raise for the troops, strengthening health care services for serv ice mem bers and their families, and providing $2.3 billion for family support and advocacy programs.
The bill protects our troops in harm's way by providing $3.2 billion for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, $2.8 billion for combating IEDs in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a total of $453 million for the modernization of the M1 Abrams tanks.
The bill also includes an additional $1.5 billion for the National Guard and Reserve equipment, $633 million for military medical research, including $233 million for cancer research, $125 million for psychological health and traumatic brain injury research.
I'm pleased that the committee included $141 million for University and Industry Research Centers, of which $20 million was included for Historically Black Colleges and Universities for research.
As a former member of the subcommittee, I'm reminded of my dear friend and colleague, former Chairman Jack Murtha, who followed one central creed and principle in developing an annual House Defense appropriations bill, and that was to create a bill which provided our servicemen and -women all the resources and tools they need to do their job as effectively and efficiently as possible. I believe this bill does just that. And I do earnestly believe that Chairman Murtha would be very proud of this bill. And I'm pleased to support its passage.
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