Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3222, the Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2008.  I would like to thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Chairman Murtha, and the gentleman from Florida, Ranking Member Young, for their efforts to craft a strong bipartisan bill and for their tireless dedication to our national security and to the men and women in uniform who protect us. 

Ensuring a strong national defense is one of Congress’s greatest responsibilities, and at no time is that more evident when our servicemembers are overseas in harm’s way.  While the members of this body may disagree about our next steps in Iraq, we all agree that we must support the soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and civilians who are serving their country and facing some challenging missions.  Further, we agree that we must have a military that can protect our nation against current threats and respond to emerging challenges we may face in the future.  As a member of the Intelligence Committee and a former member of the House Armed Services Committee, I believe we need a flexible and an adaptive military – one whose efforts are coordinated with other assets of national power such as diplomacy, foreign assistance and international cooperation – to achieve our national security goals. 

Congress recognizes that our nation is only as strong as those who defend us, and the bill before us makes important steps to enhance the health and well-being of those serving our nation.  It provides a 3.5% pay increase for our men and women in uniform, an increase over the President’s recommendation of 3.0%.  It continues our efforts to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps in order to reduce the strain on our military caused by repeated troop deployments.  In order to treat those currently in our military health system and to meet the needs of those returning from combat, it includes $23 billion for defense health programs, $416 million more than the President requested.  It also postpones the President’s recommended cost share increases for Tricare beneficiaries, a proposal that would have caused hardship to our military families and retirees.

H.R. 3222 also makes significant increases to vital non-proliferation programs.  For years, the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program has allowed the U.S. to work with Russia and other nations in the former Soviet Union to dismantle their nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.  As the chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity and Science and Technology, I know that one of the most important safeguards to preventing an attack using a weapon of mass destruction in the U.S. is to secure dangerous materials at their source to prevent them from getting into the hands of terrorists.  To this end, the defense appropriations bill includes $398 million for Cooperative Threat Reduction -- $26 million more than the current level and $50 million more than the President’s request. 

Finally, H.R. 3222 invests in systems and technology to protect against current and future threats.  I am extremely pleased that the measure includes an additional $588 million for advance procurement of materials that could lead to the construction of a second Virginia-class submarine as early as next year.  Our Navy has estimated that we need 48 attack submarines to meet the needs of our military commanders.  Yet, under the Navy’s current 30-year shipbuilding plan, they do not expect to increase production to two subs per year until 2012, causing a perilous decline in our future sub fleet – dropping below 48 ships in FY2020-33 and hitting a low of 40 in FY2028 and FY2029.  I have long advocated increasing our build rate of Virginia-class submarines to two per year so that we have sufficient capabilities to address emerging threats.  However, the Navy has repeatedly delayed its two per year target date, causing instability in the industrial base.  In FY2004, the Navy expected to build two subs per year in FY2007.  By FY2005, the target had moved to FY2009.  That date was pushed back again and again, and now stands at FY2012.   Meanwhile, our defense industrial base in Southeastern New England has suffered layoffs of submarine designers and engineers, whose specialized skills would be very difficult to reconstitute if lost.  Without immediate action, we risk shrinking our sub fleet to perilously low levels, precisely when nations such as China are expanding and modernizing their navies.  After visits to Rhode Island and Connecticut earlier this year, Chairman Murtha stated that building more submarines would be a priority, and this legislation demonstrates his commitment to fixing this dangerous problem.  On behalf of the submarine industrial base in Rhode Island, I thank him and Ranking Member Young for their leadership on this important national security issue.

I am pleased that one of our final actions before departing for the August work period will be passing this important legislation, which demonstrates Congress’s commitment to national security and deserves the support of all in this chamber.