John Ensign: “Thank you, Mr. President. Motion to Recommit Mr. President, I want to thank Senators McCain, Graham, DeMint, Sununu, and…”

“Thank you, Mr. President. Motion to Recommit Mr. President, I want to thank Senators McCain, Graham, DeMint, Sununu, and Coburn for joining me in a motion to commit that I will raise in a minute. I believe the Appropriations Committee needs to go back to the drawing board to come up with a bill that does not exceed the President's request of $94.5 billion in emergency spending. Let me be clear--I don't agree with everything in the President's request--I do believe that we should not spend above the total level of his request. The emergency supplemental appropriations bill we are considering today provides funds necessary to support our troops who are fighting to make our nation more secure. This bill provides $72 billion for defense. Much of this funding is absolutely critical. It will ensure that our troops have the safest and most up-to-date equipment, as they serve in harm's way, in order to protect each of us. That is why I support many of the provisions of this supplemental appropriations bill. I am, however, disappointed that this bill includes so much unnecessary, and in fact wasteful, spending. Spending that is not related to the emergency needs of the military. Spending that was not requested by the President, the Commander-in-Chief of our Nation's military. In my opinion, this bill abuses the spending process. Certain provisions in this bill clearly reflect that the Senate is using our troops to push wasteful spending through Congress. That is simply wrong.…”