Jeff Bingaman: “let me first just clarify what we are about here. The amendment that Senator Dorgan and Senator Moseley-Braun and I have…”

“let me first just clarify what we are about here. The amendment that Senator Dorgan and Senator Moseley-Braun and I have offered is not an amendment to cut out the funding that the administration has requested in this area. It is to support the funding that the administration is requesting in this area. The administration in its budget said that it wanted $28.8 million in the space-based laser program this year, and that is exactly what we are proposing. Now, at the committee level and the subcommittee level an additional $118 million, or essentially five times as much funding, was added to the request of the administration. What we are trying to do is say let us go with what the Pentagon requested. That is not an unreasonable position. Last evening, Senator Lott spoke in opposition to our amendment, and he said clearly in his view the space-based laser was, and I think this is an exact quote, ``the national missile defense option of choice.'' That is just flat wrong. The Pentagon has made it very clear that their option of choice is the ground-based interceptor which we are funding through the National Missile Defense Program in this budget. In fact, we are funding it at twice the level that the administration had earlier requested. Instead of the plan of spending $2.3 billion over the next 5 years, we are going to spend $4.6 billion on that. I support that, and our amendment does nothing to interfere with that.”