Broun says Democrats blocked amendment to provide funding for ongoing war efforts

Congressman Paul Broun last week criticized the U.S. House of Representatives Democratic leadership for blocking his amendment to provide needed funding to war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan by eliminating wasteful spending on pork-barrel projects.

Broun's amendment would give the Secretary of Defense the authority to transfer earmarked spending away from lower priority and often frivolous projects requested by members of Congress to activities that support American troops fighting the War on Terror. Broun had intended to offer his amendment during House consideration of the "continuing resolution."

To protect their pet projects and to block funding for the troops, House Democrats passed a "closed rule" preventing any amendments to the "continuing resolution" from being considered.

"As a Marine, I understand the importance of ensuring our military has the funding it needs to accom- plish its mission," said Broun. "By preventing Members from offering amendments to the 'continuing resolution,' the Democratic leadership has shown itself to be more interested in protecting pork-barrel spending than it is in promoting American military success. This failure of leadership isn't surprising, considering that the only reason we are discussing a 'continuing resolution' is because the Democratic Congress has failed to pass 12 of the 13 annual appropriations bills this year. What is surprising is that the Democratic leadership would so blatantly put their self-interested spending greed ahead of the needs of our men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Continuing resolutions are legislative devices used to provide shortterm funding for continued government operations in the absence of an enacted appropriations bill. To date, Democrats have failed to pass 12 of the 13 annual appropriations bills, and also have failed to pass additional funding for the troops, risking furloughs at the Defense Department. The continuing resolution passed by the House of Representatives last week provides funding for continued government operations until December 21, 2007.

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