Jon Kyl, June 4, 2007

Congress recently approved an emergency war funding bill that gets the urgently needed resources to our troops fighting overseas, but also includes billions of dollars in unrelated spending.

Since day one, it was made clear that any emergency funding bill for our troops could not include a surrender date. Nevertheless, Democrats delayed an emergency funding bill for more than 100 days, simply to please the far left anti-war groups.

The American people should know what else is in the bill that was passed -- it is filled with billions of dollars of spending on extraneous projects and some bad public policy. Our military leaders said they needed the funding now, however so, Congress had no choice but to pass the bill.

Extraneous provisions in the emergency troop funding bill include: a raise in the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour and without offsetting tax relief for small-businesses; $22 million in Corps of Engineers funding specifically earmarked for Long Island and Westchester County, and certain areas of New Jersey; $40 million in agriculture assistance specifically earmarked for certain areas of Kansas affected by the recent tornadoes; $10 million for radios for the Capitol Police; several new provisions to give certain labor unions and Continental and American Airlines relief from their employer pension plan contribution obligations; and a provision that mandates that the Secretary of Health and Human Services approve a state’s request to extend a waiver for the Pharmacy Plus program, making Wisconsin the only state to benefit this provision.

Since Congress received the President’s request for emergency supplemental funding, it has voted more than 30 times on Iraq- or troop-funding-related measures without producing an acceptable bill. In April, the President vetoed a version of the supplemental because it established an arbitrary timeline for withdrawal from Iraq. Both the Iraq Study Group and military commanders on the ground in Iraq opposed setting an arbitrary withdrawal date, which would have endangered both troops and the mission.

Military leaders had warned that the Army needed funds from the supplemental by April 15 to prevent cutbacks in equipment repair and training. Defense Secretary Robert Gates reported in May that the funding delay is preventing the military from receiving lifesaving armored vehicles and other force protection measures and also forcing the Pentagon to delay equipment repair and training. In addition, the funding delay has slowed the training of Iraqi troops, prolonging the time when security for Iraq can be transferred to the Iraqis.

The spending bill also establishes a series of benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet and conditions U.S. funding to Iraq on progress in meeting those benchmarks. It does, however, allow the President to waive those benchmarks.

I have previously voted against establishing benchmarks with such consequences because I believe it is wrong-headed to deny funding for actions we’ve determined are essential for winning the war. The only benchmark we ought to set, in my view, is victory, and we ought to be giving our commanders and the troops all the flexibility and tools they need to succeed and not hamstring them with politically motivated funding restrictions.

At the end of the day, Congress was forced to pass a bill that delivered the urgently needed funds to our men and women fighting overseas, not withstanding that the bill is laden with billions of dollars in projects unrelated to the war and foolish benchmarks. It’s called legislative blackmail.

Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican, represents Arizona in the U.S. Senate. He serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Finance Committee, and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.