Patrick Leahy: “I will be brief on amendment No. 4827. This is an amendment that the distinguished senior Senator from Missouri and I…”

“I will be brief on amendment No. 4827. This is an amendment that the distinguished senior Senator from Missouri and I filed yesterday. It guarantees that $2.4 billion of the $13 billion included in the managers' package on Tuesday for the Army and Marine Corps be allocated for National Guard equipment. It does not add any money. It ensures that the promises that have already been made to the Guard about funding will be fulfilled and, also, of course, make sure we have a much needed infusion of equipment to the National Guard. It follows an amendment that Senator Bond and I introduced last September to the Fiscal Year 2006 Defense Appropriations, in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. We realized, with the significant shortfalls in equipment available to the Guard at home for use in such natural disasters or other domestic emergencies, if, God forbid, we had another such tragedy, the Guard would not have had enough trucks, tractors, and communication gear across the country to adequately respond. The problem then--and still is--that much of their equipment has been left in Iraq, where the National Guard has been indispensable. Since the start of the war in Iraq, Guard units have deployed with their gear and then, after a year, they have left this gear for use by other units arriving in Iraq. Worse still, the National Guard has consistently been underfunded, leaving it with well less than the required equipment stocks.…”