J. Thurmond: “I rise in support of the Domenici amendment to the Senate budget resolution. This amendment would reverse the Budget…”

“I rise in support of the Domenici amendment to the Senate budget resolution. This amendment would reverse the Budget Committee decision proposed by Senators Exon and Grassley to cut $26 billion from discretionary outlays over the 5-year budgeting period. A discretionary spending cut of that magnitude means that many of the reductions, of necessity, would come from the defense budget. This cut would be in addition to the already existing $20 billion long-term shortfall in defense funding acknowledged by the executive branch and Congress. In other words, the Exon-Grassley proposal will make the severe underfunding of defense even worse. I also intend to vote for another Domenici amendment when it comes before us later. The next Domenici amendment would establish caps or so-called firewalls to protect defense spending from further raids to fund domestic programs. However, it must be acknowledged that a vote for firewalls will simply be a vote for the President's budget request, inadequate as that request may be. Perhaps in today's political climate, this is the best we can expect. But we must not allow enactment of the President's defense number to make us complacent. The President's budget request contains at minimum the long-term funding shorfall of $20 billion just cited. Some defense budget experts claim this shortfall may be as great as $100 billion.”