Duncan Hunter

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Last week the Committee on Armed Services reported out a bill that very clearly reflects our steadfast support for our service members and their families, our deep appreciation for their many sacrifices, and the strong bipartisan spirit that characterizes this committee. Passing with a committee vote of 60-1, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 provides for both near and long- term military personnel and force structure requirements, and highlights the need for improvements in acquisition processes and cooperation among key Federal agencies. Mr. Chairman, the legislation provides $512.9 billion for the Department of Defense and the security programs of the Department of Energy. We include a recommendation of active duty growth of 30,000 for the Army and 5,000 for the Marine Corps above the President's budget request. We also include a supplemental bridge fund of some $50 billion to support our troops operating in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places in the global war on terrorism, and this, Mr. Chairman, is to provide for a seamless continuity in the waning calendar months of this year so that our troops continue to be well supplied before any supplementals in the following year. Mr. Chairman, we appreciate the National Guard and Reserve, and we have provided for additional end strength up to 350,000, and we also have right now a series of other enhancements that are being looked at by the special commission chartered by this body and the other body and the President to address National Guard issues. We are going to be doing that. We are going to be getting their recommendations shortly, and those recommendations may be manifested in a bill to follow this one. But this year, taking care of our troops and protecting our troops has been a real priority, and we have included additional money, in excess of $100 million, for jamming devices to handle roadside bombs. We have included additional money for greater armor in our platforms, better armor with our new technology in the body armor units that are issued so our Army and Marine Corps personnel, in fact all personnel who are stationed in this theater, and we are spending a lot of resources protecting our forces, protecting the troops. Additionally, Mr. Chairman, we look over the horizon and we look at potential trouble spots around the world, security challenges over the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years, and we do a few other things, and our very able chairmen of the subcommittees are going to describe a lot of the things that we do with respect to equipment and personnel in detail. But we keep a little more insurance, perhaps, than the administration has in a couple of areas. One is stealth attack aircraft. We used just a few percentage of these great F-117 stealth aircraft in the first gulf war, and yet they knocked out over 20 percent of the targets. This combination of stealth and precision munitions has been a very critical and important factor in the American security apparatus. We don't allow the Air Force to move so quickly to retire those stealth aircraft until we get others online. We also retain a greater part of our bomber force. That has been the backbone of our deep strike for many, many years. We don't have a new bomber program right now and we don't want to let quite as many of those birds go before we are well embarked on this new bomber program. As you move across the modernization spectrum, Mr. Chairman, our members have done an extraordinary job in putting together packages for our special operators, for our line troops, for our Guard and Reserve. We have also done some great things for people, for families. We have extended TRICARE. We have completed this movement of coverage of TRICARE to our National Guard personnel. We have made prescription drugs more affordable. We have put an emphasis and an incentive on getting your medicine through the mail, because that is a much lower burden for the taxpayers of the United States and very convenient now for those recipients. Mr. Chairman, we have great subcommittee chairmen and great ranking members. We are going to be recognizing them to tell us about this bill. I want to give my thanks to them and my special partner and friend, Ike Skelton, who has put in countless hours leading on issues and developing issues and working to ensure that the people that wear the uniform of the United States have the very finest conditions and the very finest treatment for themselves and their family, and that America's defense remains the envy of the world. I reserve the balance of my time, Mr. Chairman, with many thanks to all the committee, and all the staff, who helped to put this bill together.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, we are at a crossroads on a lot of our defense weapons systems. There is no one more capable or better trained to lead in these very important decisions than the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon), who is the chairman of the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee. Mr. Chairman, I yield the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) 6 minutes.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I might add the gentleman who just spoke, the gentleman from Texas, has been to the warfighting theaters more than any other Member of either body in this Congress and we appreciate his great efforts. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson), who took the place of the great Floyd Spence, former chairman of this committee, and nobody has devoted more in terms of their personal effort toward national security or, in Mr. Wilson's case, more of their family members. The Wilson family wears the uniform of the United States.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett), who heads the Projection Forces Subcommittee, which oversees the construction of the platforms and our ships and our bomber forces and our airlift that projects American power around the world. (Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize California native and U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Mulvihill. Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to honor Colonel Mulvihill, who will soon be retiring from the Army after 25 years of distinguished service to our nation. Colonel Mulvihill began his career with the Army in 1981 upon receiving an ROTC commission from the University of California, Davis. Since that time, he has been assigned to commands from California to Europe, serving as a Battalion S2, Assistant Brigade S2, Tactical Signals Intelligence Company Commander, Observer-Controller for the National Training Center, Instructor at Fort Huachuca, Assistant G2 in Europe, SFOR Intelligence Task Force Commander in Bosnia and the 66th MI Group S3. In 2001, Colonel Mulvihill assumed command at the Joint Intelligence Training Activity Pacific, his current and final duty assignment. Colonel Mulvihill is known by those who have served beside him, as well as those he has commanded, as an Intelligence expert and a leader who has always put the welfare of our nation's soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors before his own. President Ronald Reagan once said, ``I always believed in the importance of peace through strength. And the military is the provider of that strength. So we must equip them, train them and support them. But over the years, America's military leadership has brought us to even greater heights than we ever could imagine.'' Mr. Speaker, President Reagan was referring to leaders like Colonel Mulvihill, who embody the strength of our nation and remain our military's greatest asset. As Chairman of the House Committee on Armed Services, I extend my deepest appreciation and gratitude to Colonel Mulvihill for his 25 years of dedicated military service. Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in saluting this American hero and wishing him and his family continued success in their future endeavors.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the life and community service of Mr. Harold Soens, who recently passed away at the age of 66 at his home in Santee, California. As President of the San Diego Off-Road Coalition and the California League of Off-Road Voters, Mr. Soens was passionate about off-road recreation, devoting his life toward working with the community; especially children. He educated others about the sport, teaching the value of off-road safety and etiquette and working to protect the rights of all off-road enthusiasts while, at the same time, appreciating the environment with which we have been blessed. Mr. Soens learned the value of service at a very young age, losing his father aboard the USS Arizona during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. It was this example that Mr. Soens would follow throughout his life as he devoted his time toward the goal of creating a positive environment and future for outdoor recreation in California. An off-road enthusiast since 1958, Mr. Soens rode everything from midgets to sprint cars and spent some time racing as a competitive motorcycle rider. Known for his sense of humor, friendliness, frankness and energy, Mr. Soens served in several capacities with the California Off-Road Vehicle Association, the American Motorcyclist Association, the National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council, the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreational Area Technical Review Team and the Stakeholders Roundtable for OHV Recreation in California. Even with these responsibilities, Mr. Soens found the time to volunteer hundreds of hours at the Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreational Area and as an ATV Safety Instructor for the State of California Mr. Soens was also heavily involved with the Survivors of Pearl Harbor and the California Police Activities League (CalPal) program where he served as a mentor to inner-city and under-privileged children by providing the opportunity for them to appreciate the beauty of our desert and the enjoyment of off-road activities. At all times, with all students, Mr. Soens stressed the responsibility of being safe and treating the land in which they lived and played with respect. I wish to express to his wife, Jean, his four children, eight grandchildren and one great grandchild, my sincerest condolences for their loss. In a time where the idea of volunteerism is often seen as a burden, Mr. Soens' dedication and service is a reminder to us all that effort rendered toward the benefit of our community is the greatest use of our time.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. I thank my friend for yielding, Mr. Speaker, and I would just take a minute. I have been watching my friend and the gentlewoman from Virginia (Mrs. Drake), and I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of the job that you do representing your districts and representing those great contingencies of American veterans and active duty service people in your district. I wanted to say, and I know you have been talking about health care, but I wanted to talk about another type of security just for one second, and that is national security. And I know my friend has been to Iraq, and I think he is going again soon, and many other Members of this body, Democrat and Republican, are going. Now is the time when America should take heart. I have watched the newspapers and the mood of this House as of late, and I feel, especially coming from the Democrat side, the message is one that I have seen before. It is a message that we saw in the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan faced down the Soviet Union, and you had calls from the far left to the effect that President Reagan was going to have a war with the Soviets, that he needed to acquiesce, he needed to engage, even as they ringed our allies in Europe with SS-20 missiles. And yet Ronald Reagan stood tough. He stood for a policy of peace through strength. And at one point the Soviets picked up the phone and said, can we talk? And when we talked, we talked about the disassembly of the Soviet empire. Similarly he stood tough in Central America, and today those two nations in question, El Salvador and Nicaragua, have fragile democracies because of America. Today, we are providing that military shield in Iraq while we put this fragile government together, a government based on something new in that part of the world: Freedom and representative government. You know, this has been done on the shoulders of the great American servicemen and women who serve us in that very troubled and difficult part of the world. And their job is dusty and dirty and sometimes bloody, but it is worthwhile. And what they are giving to us, if we can stabilize that country and that neighborhood and have a country that has a benign relationship towards the United States, will accrue to the benefit of generations of Americans. So now is the time to take heart. Now is the time to not fail. Now is the time to stand firm, and I want to thank the gentlemen for his work on Armed Services and the Rules Committee, for the great work he does in that regard.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the business in order under the Calendar Wednesday rule be dispensed with on Wednesday, March 29, 2006.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding. One thing my distinguished friend from California (Mr. Waxman) has not shown us is how American laws, existing laws in contract, that govern the acquisition of systems and the acquisition of services, how those laws are not applicable to this American corporation, and so, therefore, we have to say, stop, we are not going to do anymore business with this corporation. In fact, all the laws that go toward the enforcement of contracts and the contract itself, of course, are enforceable. Fines can be extracted. Other remedies can be extracted; and if there is, in fact, fraud, and I have heard the term ``fraud'' used in this debate, if there is fraud, that is a crime in contracting. If you commit crime in contracting, you can go to jail. There is no Member of this Chamber who, if a contract is broken between the United States Government and any of our contractors over there, there is no one in this Chamber who is going to say that we should not extract our full remedy under the laws we create and if people are involved in criminal action that they should not be prosecuted.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding. This is aimed at the company Halliburton. That is very clear. The papers are awash with Halliburton and have been for several years. Halliburton employs lots of Americans. And I do not have the exact number of KIA, but they, like our soldiers in the field, the people that drive those trucks and work those logistics to support our Marines out in the western area of operations out in Fallujah and our Army personnel out in Mosul and Tikrit and other remote parts of Iraq, those people risk their lives every day. I will say to the gentleman, as I recall, over 20 of them have been killed in action, people like the Halliburton drivers. People have been captured by the enemy and some of them held hostage, unable to escape. Most of the people, the vast majority of the people that work for this contractor, like lots of contractors that support our American military overseas, are good, hardworking people. And if you look, if you go up and eat with the Stryker brigades up in Mosul, or the 101st in Tikrit or the Marines in Fallujah, and you go into their mess halls and you look at the operation and you see the fuel that is delivered, you see the ammunition that is delivered, you see the treatment, the quality of life for our military people, you will understand then that is primarily a result of American corporations which support the war effort. And that is a fact of life. Now, the idea that prices have been unreasonable and that there are contracts where they have abused the American taxpayer or abused the contract process, let us take that under the regular order. And if that is true, let's hold people accountable. Let's hold the corporation accountable. But the idea that we single out a group of people which is thousands and thousands of Americans who support our fighting personnel and basically paralyze that operation is unreasonable.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Let me just say to my colleagues here who have stated that we should hold up our contracts and not give new contracts until past contracts are found to be reasonable versus unreasonable, Members have stood on this floor and have called every weapons system since the first Persian tank unreasonable in cost. The B-2 has been called unreasonable. Every ship in the navy has been called unreasonable in the cost. Every fighter aircraft has been called unreasonable in the cost. The idea that you are not going to have any action on these contracts unless you have a congressional hearing is not true. There is no committee here that has the ability to enforce or not enforce a contract. You have dozens, in fact hundreds, of government lawyers who have every opportunity, indeed have the charge, of going through complex contracts, and where they find that the contract was violated by the contractor, and there are lots of contractors around who are bankrupt to attest to this, that that contract is then acted upon, damages are extracted; and all these are things that we have put in our system of laws. Now, the idea that you are going to take a major part of the support of an ongoing shooting war and you are going to paralyze it and say, well, it is only for present contracts, the next one that comes up next month, that is going to be different, but you are going to allow present contracts to continue. That could mean that you have got a hiatus in capability, a hiatus in the expertise of these people who have gone out, wearing the uniform of American contractors, put themselves in harm's way and, over the last several years in this war, developed a real expertise. So I know the gentleman's amendment may play well politically in some quarters, but I think it is bad for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States because the contractors we are talking about are the people supporting them right now in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today pursuant to this order, it adjourn to meet at noon on Monday, March 20, 2006, unless it sooner has received a message from the Senate transmitting its concurrence in House Concurrent Resolution 361, in which case the House shall stand adjourned pursuant to that concurrent resolution.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I offer a privileged concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 361) and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the order of the House of today, I call up the conference report on the bill (H.R. 1815) to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2006 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes.

Mr. HUNTER. How much time do we have left, Mr. Speaker?

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to thank the gentleman. I thought it would be appropriate for us also to thank this wonderful staff, this great bipartisan staff who put this product together. Let us thank them for what they did.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Just one or two points, Mr. Speaker. Again in the detainee legislation, the House inserted protections for American uniform personnel and nonuniform personnel. The other point that was mentioned by the gentleman from New York was on probative value of evidence that might have been obtained under coercion. We all know that we have an exclusionary rule in this country domestically, and that means, as in Davis v. Mississippi, which is one of the threshold cases, the fact that the person did have his fingerprints on the threshold of the grandmother that he murdered, was picked out of an unconstitutionally developed lineup; and therefore we said, as a matter of disciplining our process, we would let people go even though we knew they had committed the crime. This is a different situation, Mr. Speaker. This is a situation where a person may have been interrogated and may have disclosed, for example, a cache of weapons with which he was going to use to destroy American soldiers on the battlefield, the idea that in our review when we determine whether we are going to free him and send him back, having seen some of the people that we freed at Guantanamo show back up on the battlefield intent on killing American soldiers, that we felt we could not go that far. We could still take the probative value, and if that interrogation developed that cache of weapons, we would look at the cache of weapons and say the person who maintained that was in fact a combatant and it is not fair to our soldiers to put him back where he can shoot at them again. Mr. Speaker, let me just say one last thing before my great colleague winds up on his side. The gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton) is our champion on the Armed Services Committee for military education. That is an area in which he has more expertise than anybody else in this body. And I thought, as we move toward the conclusion of this bill, that it was only appropriate that as a gentleman who knows more history than the rest of us, and, in fact, I went over a book that we were going to get him and I found out he was already reading that book, I wanted to dedicate to him and to give to him a book from the committee signed by all the members of the committee, and the ones that have not come to the floor yet will have their opportunity. It is the ``Battle of Vicksburg.'' And for a gentleman who knows every battle that was fought in America and knows it very well, I thought that this would be an interesting tribute to us for a gentleman who really guides us, Democrats and Republicans, in this very important area of military education. So to the great gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton), I hope you have good reading, and let me know the high points.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon), the distinguished chairman of the Air, Land Subcommittee. (Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent for 1 additional minute so the gentleman from Georgia could make a presentation.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, the Iraqi Freedom Fund is a fund that includes money for body armor and lots of other equipment. It is a fund that we supply each year. It is a revolving fund that we keep money in so that the war-fighting commanders can buy what they need immediately when they need it.

Mr. HUNTER. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. HUNTER. That is my understanding.