Tom Harkin: “let me just note that upon the passage of this supplemental appropriations bill, Congress will have provided over $318…”

“let me just note that upon the passage of this supplemental appropriations bill, Congress will have provided over $318 billion for the war in Iraq--almost all of it through emergency supplemental appropriations. Now, again, we must support our troops. They have no control over how their operations and equipment are funded. So we want to support them. But I have grave concerns about the way the Bush administration has gone about funding the war--only through emergency supplemental appropriations. The war in Iraq has gone on for 3 years now. There have been eight separate emergency supplemental appropriations measures to fund our operations in Iraq. This is how an emergency is defined by our own budget rules: ``Suddenly, quickly coming into being . . . not building over time . . . an urgent, pressing and compelling need requiring immediate action . . . unforeseen, unpredictable and unanticipated and not permanent.'' That is how our budget rules define ``emergency appropriations.'' Three years? War in Iraq? It is unforeseen, unpredictable, unanticipated, sudden? Wait a minute, this does not meet the definition of ``emergency.'' It is not unforeseen. Why isn't the President sending us, then, a regular budget at the beginning of the year to fund the war in Iraq and Afghanistan? Because they do not want to admit how much money they are spending there. They want to mask it. I am going to support this bill.…”