Tom Harkin: “It is my understanding, I say to my very good friend--I want to make this clear at the outset that I have the highest…”

“It is my understanding, I say to my very good friend--I want to make this clear at the outset that I have the highest regard and respect for the Senator from Virginia and his devotion to this country and his devotion to the readiness of our military and also his devotion to our veterans. I would not want anyone to misconstrue that I am saying the Senator from Michigan or the Senator from Virginia have shortchanged it. I understand the obligations that you are under in terms of meeting our military commitments. I understand that. This amendment is meant only in good faith to try to meet, I think, another commitment that we have. And in some ways I hope to shed some light, hopefully, on one aspect of military spending that could be used for our veterans' affairs. I say to the Senator that 2 years ago the comptroller general of the Pentagon concluded that the DOD could not account for over $13 billion in spending--just disappeared--$13 billion. Nobody knows where it went. Well, I have more examples of that. But if it is just $1 billion, only one-thirteenth of that, then $329 million is not that much, when you take into account that kind of waste. Quite frankly, I must tell you that I think Secretary Cohen is doing a great job over there. And they are getting a better handle on this all the time. But there is still a long way to go. I think within the next year they could find some of that money and put that in veterans' benefits.”