By Jen DiMascio
Senate appropriators pledged yesterday to provide $11.5 billion to fully fund the Defense Department’s fiscal year 2008 requirement for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles.
Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), the chairman of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, said appropriators are prepared to pass a continuing resolution in November that would provide the funding that would meet the department’s request and saturate the production line through the end of fiscal year 2008.
Any additional funding would go to vehicles that would not be produced and fielded until the following year, Inouye said during floor debate on the defense appropriations bill.
The committee had planned to include the funding for MRAPs in a supplemental budget request, but on Oct. 2, Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.) confirmed reports that consideration of the supplemental would be delayed. He said he would not move the bill until the president agrees to change course in Iraq (Defense Daily, Oct. 3).
Inouye’s statement prompted Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) to withdraw an amendment to provide $23 billion for MRAPs that he planned to attach to the defense spending bill to avoid a break in production of the vehicles he called “a little bit like the ultimate body armor.”
In addition to discussion about MRAPs, senators yesterday debated an amendment sponsored by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) that would add $10 million in research and development funds for a Space Test Bed program.
“We’ve got to be able to protect our space assets,” Kyl said, noting that $10 million doesn’t begin to cover the bill. “If we can’t protect them, we’re not going to be able to fight a war.”
Even though the amendment does not involve much money, it faced enough opposition that it was ultimately withdrawn from consideration.
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who leads the Senate Armed Services Committee panel that deals with space and missile defense issues, pressed Kyl to withdraw the amendment. According to Nelson, a defense program called Space Situational Awareness is working to defend space assets and is a more appropriate place for investment. Kyl’s attempt to make the space test bed part of the nation’s missile defense program, “It takes us back to Star Wars and the start of weaponization of space,” Nelson said, adding that they could work out a deal but not on the Senate floor, because of the classified nature of the programs involved.