Kendrick Meek: “Reclaiming my time, the bottom line is, Ms. Brown, that we have the responsibility to govern here. The President is the…”

“Reclaiming my time, the bottom line is, Ms. Brown, that we have the responsibility to govern here. The President is the executive. He is the Commander in Chief. He was given the authority by the Congress, even though there were many votes that weren't in the affirmative of giving him that authority. He can send additional troops. There has been a discussion in the Senate. I haven't quite read the briefing information on it or the report from the Senate session today. I know there will be sessions in the House dealing with that. I talked earlier in this Special Order about Mr. Murtha and what he is doing in his committee as it relates to defense oversight. We know that there will be a bill, a supplemental, I think a $99 billion bill coming to the floor, which will be, from what I understand, the last supplemental bill. When we say 'supplemental,' I want to make sure all the Members and everyone understands this is basically what we call emergency funding for the war. It is not necessarily in the budget. If it was in the budget, it would go through a process just like you do with your transportation dollars in your committee, giving authorization for certain spending. This is just pretty much a wish list from the administration that is given to the Appropriations Committee, and it really doesn't go through the full process. I understand this is the last supplemental that will come through for Iraq and Afghanistan.”