Neil Abercrombie: “I thank Chairman Hunter and Mr. Skelton for the opportunity. I stand here today in support of the bill moving forward…”

“I thank Chairman Hunter and Mr. Skelton for the opportunity. I stand here today in support of the bill moving forward, but I have a caveat that I hope will be able to be addressed before we come to a final conclusion. As the chairman knows, my original opposition was to what has been termed the ``bridge fund''; upon reconsideration, I have become a strong advocate of it. For those not familiar with it, the bridge fund is a legitimate methodology for the authorizing committee to deal with the actual cost of deployments of our Armed Forces throughout the world. Presently, the bridge fund will deal only with approximately 6 months' worth of costs associated, expenditures associated, with these deployments. As a result then we will have to take up yet another supplemental budget, probably just after the first of the year, within a month or so, and that will, in turn, find us dealing with other requests, other emergencies, that will be included in this so-called supplemental budget. It is not an emergency that we need funding for for our deployments overseas, but rather an admission and an acknowledgment of the true costs of these deployments overseas. So, Mr.…”