Cord Byrd: “on May 22 of this year, 2003, I cast my vote in opposition to the fiscal year 2004 Defense authorization bill. I cast…”

“on May 22 of this year, 2003, I cast my vote in opposition to the fiscal year 2004 Defense authorization bill. I cast that vote to protest the errant course of the defense establishment in seeking larger and larger regular defense budgets. The budget for the Department of Defense is exploding, even if we do not count the vast sums being used to maintain our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The regular defense budget, not including the costs of the war on terrorism in Afghanistan or the other war, the war in Iraq which we started, has gone up by 31 percent since 2000. I will say that again. The regular defense budget, not including the costs of the war on terrorism in Afghanistan or the other war which we started in Iraq, has gone up by 31 percent since 2000. In 2000, Congress authorized $304.1 billion to fund the routine day-to-day operations of our military. The conference report before the Senate today authorizes $401.3 billion to pay the routine bills for our defense establishment. As I say, I am not even speaking of the costs of Iraq on the one hand or the costs of Afghanistan.”