Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2014
Floor Speech
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Mr. WALBERG. Madam Chairman, in light of recent events in Benghazi and North Africa, the Pentagon approved the development of the Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force for Crisis Response to function under United States African Command. This task force is specifically tailored for crisis response in Africa, and in April deployed to Spain and Italy.
The unit is capable of responding to a wide range of military operations and will provide limited defense crisis response in support of embassies, support non-combatant evacuation operations, provide humanitarian assistance, and assist with disaster relief operations, search and rescue, and other missions as directed.
As this force is ramping up, I believe we need to ensure that this valid and important mission is completely and adequately funded.
With the rise of Islamic militant groups in Mali, Nigeria and Somalia, and continued unrest in Egypt, Libya and Algeria, the threat is real and growing.
The committee has added funds for sustainment and follow-up deployments in fiscal year 2014, but there are substantial concerns that the need may be higher. Funding for this force was not requested in the President's budget, but was included in the House-passed NDAA. I'm hopeful that in establishing a funding source and signaling congressional willingness to support this mission, the Marine Corps will be better able to assess their needs and provide us with a more exact funding request.
To work towards a sure state of readiness, I'm offering this budget-neutral amendment to increase this funding by $10 million while reducing funding to the Operation and Maintenance, Defense-Wide account by $11 million. During consideration of the NDAA last month, an amendment was adopted by voice vote that would increase authorization for the crisis response force by a similar amount.
To provide an additional military response in case of another Benghazi-type situation, we must ensure that the special purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force, Crisis Response can properly respond to threats to our diplomatic posts in an expeditious manner.
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Mr. WALBERG. Mr. Chairman, I rise to offer a bipartisan amendment with Mr. Cohen of Tennessee, Ms. Esty of Connecticut, and Mr. Rigell of Virginia that will go a long ways to ensure American tax dollars in Afghanistan are spent in a wise and realistic fashion.
My amendment would specifically reduce funding of the Afghanistan Infrastructure Fund by $79 million to a total of $200 million, the level adopted by this House during last year's Defense appropriations bill. The savings would then be sent to the spending reduction account.
We have already spent billions of dollars toward rebuilding the infrastructure of Afghanistan, and Congress has appropriated over $1 billion alone to the Afghanistan Infrastructure Fund since it was created in 2011.
As of March 31 of this year, SIGAR, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, reported that only $102.9 million of the $1 billion that Congress has appropriated has actually been dispersed for projects.
Perhaps even more significant, SIGAR has found that the projects which are under way are behind schedule and years away from completion and raise serious concerns about whether some of the projects may run counter to our goals and the COIN strategy, either because they have created expectation gaps among the Afghan people or that they lack local citizen support.
This year, $279 million has been requested for two new infrastructure projects. Now, I know we all look to our commanders in the field for guidance on what they need to finish the job in Afghanistan; but with $400 million in unobligated funds, I ask, Mr. Chairman, why commit to two brand-new projects that we will likely never complete?
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Mr. WALBERG. I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Chairman, as a review, my amendment would reduce funding of the Afghanistan Infrastructure Fund by $79 million to a total of $200 million--the level adopted by this House during last year's Defense appropriations bill.
SIGAR has found that the projects which are under way right now are behind schedule and years away from completion and raise serious concerns about whether some of the projects may run counter to our goals and the COIN strategy.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, additionally, as the end of operations in Afghanistan draws near, the Afghan people will need to bear the responsibility of building and maintaining their own infrastructure, to say the least.
The Afghan Government has often not been a reliable partner in these projects. They have often had little role in designating these projects--designing them, carrying them out, power lines, roads, and building projects that ultimately will not be used.
The Department's own budget justification states that because not all fiscal year 2012 and 2013 projects have been awarded, the fiscal year 2014 budget estimate is based on ``limited actual cost data.''
At a time when often difficult choices need to be made, we have a concern that as Congress is being asked to support funding and projects, that they really have limited cost data involved.
I ask for support for this amendment. I believe that the dollars can be used, indeed, to grow an economy for ourselves and ultimately deal with infrastructure projects here in our own country.
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