Patrick Leahy: “we got into this situation for two reasons: First, unfortunately, with all the other needs of this country, we have…”

“we got into this situation for two reasons: First, unfortunately, with all the other needs of this country, we have traditionally underfunded the National Guard's equipment level. Second, much of the equipment the Guard does have is being used in the ongoing war effort in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in our needs across the Middle East and Central Asia. We all know there is no prospect that we are going to see it again back in the United States any time soon. The distinguished senior Senator from Missouri, Senator Bond, and I cochair the Senate National Guard Caucus. On September 13, the two of us wrote the President to urge that the administration deal with this problem immediately. We want to demonstrate by our letter that this is not a partisan issue, it is a national issue. We asked the President include the $1.3 billion in the next supplemental spending bill to deal with Hurricane Katrina. But we can't wait for the President to request the funding. We have to act now. The date this next supplemental spending bill will be submitted is still uncertain. We don't know when it is going to be submitted. But with this Defense appropriations bill, we have billions of dollars in emergency funding. Much of that emergency funding, rightly so, will go toward ensuring that our men and women abroad have the right tools to do their jobs. We should do that.…”