Jerry Lewis: “today we turn our attention to the fiscal year 2006 emergency supplemental, addressing the global war on terror and the…”

“today we turn our attention to the fiscal year 2006 emergency supplemental, addressing the global war on terror and the gulf coast disaster assistance. The committee-recommended funding levels is $91.833 billion, which is $400 million below the President's request. The bill provides for $67.6 billion in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. The supplemental fully funds the administration's request of $4.85 billion to train and equip security forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. The bill earmarks, I repeat, Mr. Chairman, the bill earmarks $850 billion over the President's request to upgrade Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles. The committee is also earmaking, I repeat, Mr. Chairman, earmarking an additional $480 million over the request for newer, self-up-armored Humvees, for a total of $890 million of earmarks. The committee has fully funded the President's request to procure and develop countermeasures to prevent IED attacks on our troops. The bill also includes the enhanced $400,000 life insurance benefit for servicemembers and $100,000 death gratuity for combat-related fatalities. The committee did not fund $1 billion of the request for various construction projects related to security training activities in the region because they were poorly defined and not well justified. The committee did provide a five-fold increase for the Department of Defense Inspector General to monitor war expenditures.…”