Patrick Leahy: “I speak today about the Senate's vote on the President's request for an additional $87 billion in emergency funding for…”

“I speak today about the Senate's vote on the President's request for an additional $87 billion in emergency funding for Iraq and Afghanistan, of which $65 billion is for military operations and $21 billion is for relief and reconstruction. The lion's share of the funds are for Iraq. I attended the three hearings in the Appropriations Committee, when Ambassador Bremer, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, General Pace, and several other witnesses testified. Unfortunately, there was not nearly enough time in those hearings to discuss the details of a budget request of such enormous size and complexity. I was also disappointed that the hearings provided a one-sided perspective, as there were no witnesses from the U.S. Agency for International Development or the State Department, and no witnesses from outside the government. I also reviewed the materials provided by the Office of Management and Budget in support of the request, which are useful but devoid of detail. For example, a request for $800 million for police training in Iraq is justified with only three vague sentences. It is also one thing to ask for $400 million to build two new prisons. It is another to fail to explain why on Earth it costs so much, when the price of labor in Iraq is half what it is in the United States. This is one of many examples--$33,000 pickup trucks that cost $14,000 in the U.S.…”