Joe Lieberman: “I rise to support the supplemental appropriations bill. I do so because it supports the men and women of the American…”

“I rise to support the supplemental appropriations bill. I do so because it supports the men and women of the American military, in my opinion the greatest fighting force in the history of the world. I say that, really having thought about it. It supports them in their efforts to advance the cause of freedom and to protect the security of every American by what they are doing to fight terrorism and terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan. I do want to note, however, my strong objections to House provisions known as the REAL ID Act that have been included in the conference report. The REAL ID Act will repeal ID security provisions enacted with overwhelming bipartisan support last year at the urging of the 9/11 Commission and place them with rigid and unworkable Federal mandates on State government for the issuance of driver's licenses, long exclusively a matter of State law. The conference report from the House also includes punitive immigration provisions we rejected last year and that have no place on an emergency spending bill. In my opinion, our Nation is safer if we continue to implement the protections we passed last December rather than allow an ideological debate over immigration policy to derail those initiatives so vital to the war against terrorism.…”