Congress Passes Supplemental War Funding Bill

President Bush signed an $82-billion emergency war funding supplemental into law on May 11, one day after the bill received Senate approval. The Senate voted unanimously for passage despite some questionable provisions. And with the ink barely dry on the emergency fiscal year 2005 (FY05) supplemental, House appropriators are already discussing the next round of war funding, which the Pentagon may request as early as August.

The FY05 supplemental contains $75.9 billion for military operations, yet many House members believe an additional "bridge fund" will be needed to pay for war operations between the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1, and the time when Congress will be able to pass an FY06 supplemental. This next supplemental is estimated to fall between $35 billion and $40 billion.

Besides funding war operations, lawmakers also managed to tack some pork-barrel spending onto the bill. A small portion of the emergency war supplemental funds will go toward studying preservation of Rio Grande River silvery minnows, providing debt service on a firefighting training academy in Elko, NV, and allowing oil and gas exploration along Mississippi's Gulf Islands National Seashore.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) was also able to quietly attach another non-war related provision to the bill. His measure will create a temporary worker program for up to 10,500 Australians. Many lawmakers are criticizing the provision because they believe immigration policy should be left to the Judiciary committees. Frist's case for the immigration provision was bolstered when the House attached the "REAL ID" measure to the legislation, which mandates tougher application requirements for driver's licenses and asylum standards.

Besides making asylum claims more difficult to pursue, the controversial REAL ID provision gives Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff the right to waive all law in his efforts to secure the border. This dramatic and dangerous provision could threaten existing public protections and safeguards. As OMB Watch analyst Robert Shull commented in a statement [1] released last week, "This new power comes completely without limit; every law, from child labor to ethical contracting, can now be waived." (For more on this provision, see this background article [2].)

No government official should be given the power to unilaterally waive any law. Even worse, the House attached this provision to the supplemental, which was a must-pass bill for the Senate. Emergency war supplemental bills should be exempt from unrelated riders such as the REAL ID Act.