A Supplemental for the Troops

Floor Speech

Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, today the House of Representatives will debate an emergency supplemental spending bill meant to provide needed resources to our military. It should only provide money for the brave men and women fighting terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan to protect American families at home. It is, therefore, disappointing that the supplemental bill crafted by the Democratic leadership contains billions of dollars in nonemergency spending.

While there may be components of the bill that should be debated, this is not the time and certainly not the bill to be having those debates while our troops are desperately in need of additional funding.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and our military leadership have told Congress that the money is vital to ensuring our troops have the resources they require to defeat terrorists overseas. Including billions of dollars in unrelated spending is a dangerous impediment. I hope my colleagues will instead support the clean supplemental bill introduced by Representative JERRY LEWIS of California.

In conclusion, God bless our troops, and we will never forget September the 11th.

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