Defense Appropriations Bill
Includes $1.3 Billion Leahy-Bond Amendment
To Replenish National Guard Equipment Stocks

[The Senate Friday passed the annual Defense Appropriations Bill that includes the $1.3 billion National Guard replenishment amendment sponsored by Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Kit Bond (R-Mo.), co-chairs of the Senate National Guard Caucus.  The amendment, approved Sept. 29 by the Senate and added to the bill, provides funding to help fill deficiencies in available equipment for the National Guard.  Leahy and Bond wrote to President Bush on September 13, asking him to request the funding in an upcoming supplemental bill for the Gulf hurricanes.  Leahy's statement on the amendment, which he delivered late Sept. 29 on the Senate Floor, follows, along with news articles and other background materials:]

Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy
National Guard Homeland Security
And Emergency Response Equipment Amendment
To The Fiscal Year 2006 Defense Appropriations Bill
Senate Floor
September 29, 2005

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2006 Defense Appropriations bill.  This amendment adds $1.3 billion in emergency funding for National Guard equipment to the supplemental portion of the Fiscal Year 2005 Defense Appropriations Bill.  This funding will be set aside to enable the National Guard to buy much-needed items for homeland security and natural disaster response. 

Hurricane Katrina exposed glaring deficiencies in the equipment available for the National Guard to respond to such disasters.  We had barely sufficient levels of trucks, tractors, communications, and miscellaneous equipment to respond to the overwhelming scale of this storm.  If we have another hurricane – or God forbid – a large-scale terrorist attack, our National Guard will not have the basic level of resources to the job right.

National Guard Chief Lieutenant General Steven Blum recently noted that the Guard has only about 35 percent of what is officially required to respond to hurricane, natural disasters, and possible terrorist attacks at home.  Just yesterday, at an appearance in the House of Representatives, General Blum noted that Guard members responded to this disaster with insufficient and outdated communications.  General Blum noted that we will need at least $7 billion to procure the communications, trucks, medical supplies, and machinery necessary to respond to future disasters.

We know without a doubt that there is an immediate need for at least $1.3 billion.  We need to procure such equipment as the Family of Medium Tractor Vehicles, new SINCGARS radios, night-vision goggles, and other equipment.  I ask that a recent report from the National Guard on these critical needs be included in the Record.     

We find ourselves in this situation for two reasons:  First, we have traditionally under-funded the National Guard’s equipment levels.  Secondly, much of the equipment that the Guard does have is being used in the ongoing war efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and across the Middle East and Central Asia.  And there is no prospect that we will see it again back in the States anytime soon.

My friend Sen. Bond and I co-chair the U.S. Senate National Guard Caucus.  On September 13, we wrote to President Bush to urge that the Administration deal with this problem immediately.  We asked that the President include the $1.3 billion in the next supplemental spending bill to deal with Hurricane Katrina.

Yet we cannot wait for the President to request the funding.  We must act now.  The date that this next supplemental spending bill will be submitted is still uncertain.  With this defense bill, we have an appropriations bill with billions of dollars in emergency funding.  Much of that emergency funding will go towards insuring that our men and women in uniform abroad have the right tools to do their job.

It seems perfectly reasonable to me that we add emergency funding to deal with the equipment needs of our troops at home.

I want to commend Senators Stevens and Inouye for including so much equipment money for the Guard in the supplemental and baseline bills.  While most of that new equipment will go towards the Guard’s overseas warfighting needs, this funding take a big step forward.  I look forward to working with them closely in the future.