Byron Dorgan: “when this bill was considered by the House Appropriations Committee there were a number of reconstruction spending…”

“when this bill was considered by the House Appropriations Committee there were a number of reconstruction spending requests for Iraq they decided to delete. For example, the House Appropriations Committee deleted $4 million for a telephone numbering system, $9 million for ZIP Codes and a postal architecture, $10 million to modernize the business practices of the Iraqi television and radio industries, $312 million for unspecified transportation and communication projects, including cosmetic improvements at airports; $100 million to build 7 housing communities including roads, schools, mosques, markets, clinics; $200 million to establish an American-Iraqi Enterprise Fund; $90 million to open public information centers in Iraq's 266 municipalities; a month-long catchup business training course at $10,000 per pupil, which is twice as much as the Harvard Business School would cost for an equivalent period; and $100 million to buy 2,000 garbage trucks. The point is that there is a long list of specifics dealing with reconstruction in Iraq that are not urgent and are not, in fact, emergencies.”