Bill meets current, future needs

While much of last week’s attention was focused on the Wall Street crisis, Congress passed a bipartisan $487.7 billion fiscal 2009 defense appropriations bill that that supports our troops and their families, invests in equipment needed to support the force, imposes fiscal discipline necessary to manage the department’s resources, and addresses flaws in U.S. national security policy.

Earlier this year, I was disappointed to hear the Secretary of Defense say that the U.S. military must prepare more for fighting wars against insurgents and militias such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan, rather than spend time and resources preparing for future conventional conflicts.

I find these comments to be misguided and lacking in strategic vision at a time when over 90 percent of our ground combat units are rated as not fully mission capable. This lack of strategic foresight has left our armed forces in a degraded state of readiness, has left our military facilities in disrepair, and has left many defense acquisition programs broken or badly damaged.

The 2009 defense appropriations bill addresses our future military needs and provides the resources urgently needed by the Department of Defense to prepare the United States military forces for threats to our national security beyond the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I am inspired by our troops and their families. Their sacrifices and service to this great country are applauded by both the American people and this Congress.  We may disagree on matters of policy, but we can all agree on the need to take care of our troops and tend to the needs of their families.

This bill addresses these needs in many ways. It provides over $1 billion above the president’s request for medical treatment and research within the Defense Health Program. This includes $300 million for traumatic brain injury and psychological health, $150 million for breast cancer research, $80 million for prostate cancer research, $20 million for ovarian cancer research, and $20 million for lung cancer research.

We provided $72 million to compensate service members for stop-loss, which arbitrarily and involuntarily extends the term of their service, and an additional $734 million for renovation and repair of barracks, military hospitals and other facilities.

In regards to taking care of our troops and their families, the bill includes language to ensure that DoD takes the steps necessary to ensure that Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and Fort Belvoir remain the gold standard of military medicine. Language in the bill directs the department to provide a detailed plan for transitioning to these new facilities once the current facilities are closed. We also expressed our concern over the frequency of troop deployments and the stress this places on service members and their families.  Language in the bill requires the department to report quarterly on unit deployments.

Defense appropriators believe that the key to improving the U.S. military posture is to maintain our domestic industrial base and to begin to stabilize weapons procurement programs needed in the future. The fiscal 2009 defense appropriations bill realigns the shipbuilding account to budget for eight ships, instead of seven in the president’s budget. We provide an additional $523 million in advance procurement for the next lot of F-22 Raptor aircraft, while providing funds for the development of an alternative engine for the Joint Strike Fighter.

The National Guard and Reserve will receive $750 million for equipment, in addition to the $825 million we provided to them in the last supplemental spending bill. And the bill provides $3.6 billion for the Army’s Future Combat Systems, an increase of $26 million that will get these new technologies and products out to our troops sooner.

Our subcommittee has aggressively fought to improve fiscal responsibility within the department, and the 2009 defense appropriations bill reduces programs that have experienced uncontrolled cost growth due to poor management and design instability, while increasing funding for oversight activities. We cut $650 million from unjustified and uncontrolled growth in outsourcing, and added $24 million for additional personnel required by the DoD inspector general to oversee the growth in DoD contracts.

The presidential helicopter program has experienced design instability and uncontrolled cost growth, so we reduced the program by $212 million. We also cut 16 aircraft and $197 million from the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter because of program delays and restructuring.

Finally, we included general provisions to improve our national security policy and the U.S. image abroad. This includes directing the DoD to study and make recommendations on the closure of detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base; prohibiting the torture of detainees in U.S. military custody; prohibiting the establishment of permanent U.S. bases in Iraq, and preventing the U.S. control of Iraqi oil resources.

We also reduced the funding for the department’s newest command, AFRICOM, and directed it to work with the State Department to ensure that the U.S. does not pursue a “military first” policy in Africa.  

I’m proud of this appropriations bill, and our subcommittee will continue to support out troops and their families while preparing the department to meet future threats.

Murtha is a member of the House Appropriations Committee.