Jim Kolbe: “Mr. Chairman, the amendment as I understand it here is designed to improve the quality of life for our forces in Iraq…”

“Mr. Chairman, the amendment as I understand it here is designed to improve the quality of life for our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nobody can dispute the need to do so. However, my concern is obviously where the funds come from. The amounts that are taken here are all from various accounts that are devoted to the reconstruction in Afghanistan. One can argue it is relatively small amounts here and there, it is a couple of hundred million in this account, a couple of hundred million in that account, but when it comes to the reconstruction which is only 25 percent of the total amount of this supplemental bill, the amounts that are taken out of here are rather substantial. The amounts that are added in on the military side are not that large. But this cuts very deeply into what Ambassador Bremer and this administration and this United States and the Coalition Authority is trying very hard to do in Iraq, which is not only to make sure that the quality of life for our Armed Forces is adequate, but to improve the quality of life for the Iraqi citizens, to improve not just the material quality of life for the Iraqi citizens, but to improve the quality of governance life under which they live.”