09 May 2006
Progress in Iraq at Risk if Funding Lags, Says Rumsfeld
Secretary, Admiral Giambastiani point out favorable Iraqi political, military developments
Washington -– As Iraq continues to make political and military progress, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is urging Congress to pass an emergency supplemental spending bill to avoid slowing efforts to train and equip Iraqi security forces.
At a Pentagon news briefing May 9, Rumsfeld and Admiral Edmund Giambastiani, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, listed several positive developments regarding Iraq:
• The new Iraqi Cabinet is nearly complete, and Prime Minister-designate Jawad al-Maliki has said that the Cabinet will represent all Iraqis and strengthen national unity.
• 254,000 Iraqi army and police personnel have been trained and equipped.
• Iraqis continue to take greater responsibility for their own security, and the area under their operational control has increased significantly in the past six months. There are now 75 Iraqi security force battalions leading area operations, with coalition forces in supporting roles.
• On May 6, the Iraqi army opened a joint operations center to exercise nationwide command and control over all of its ground forces.
These developments, Rumsfeld said, make it even more important for Congress to pass the emergency supplemental spending bill requested by the Bush administration for operational needs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
CONGRESSIONAL ACTION PENDING
The House of Representatives in mid-March passed a $91.9 billion version of the funding bill that was close to the administration’s dollar request but earmarked less money for Iraqi and Afghan security forces and more for U.S. tanks, armored vehicles and cargo planes that the Bush administration had sought. The House version includes $67.6 billion for Defense Department operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Senate version, passed May 4, totaled about $109 billion, including $72.4 billion for Afghan and Iraqi operations, $28 billion for hurricane relief, $2.3 billion for pandemic-influenza preparedness and $1.9 billion for U.S. border security.
The differences between the two versions of the bill mean that Congress must appoint House-Senate conference committee to work out a compromise acceptable to both chambers. That has not yet occurred.
Because of the slow pace of the supplemental bill, Rumsfeld said, "the Army and Marine Corps have already been forced to defer contract obligations."
Furthermore, he said, cuts and delays in funding for Iraq's security forces "will delay what has been truly significant progress.
"A slowdown in training and equipping the Iraqi security forces will have unacceptable harmful effects of postponing the day when our men and women in uniform can return home with the honor and appreciation they deserve," said Rumsfeld.
Making additions to the emergency supplemental spending bill that the administration has not requested, while cutting the requested funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan would mean providing U.S. troops in the field with less than they require, he said.
"Our nation's defense should not become a bill-payer for other parts of the budget at a time when our country's at war," Rumsfeld said.
The transcript of the briefing is available on the Defense Department Web site.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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