21 April 2005

(Negroponte confirmed for national intelligence chief)

The U.S. Senate passed the 2005 emergency supplemental spending bill April 21 providing approximately $81 billion in emergency funding for continuing military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan, humanitarian tsunami relief and foreign aid.

The Senate approved nearly $908 million in total humanitarian relief for victims of the December 2004 earthquake and tsunami in South and Southeast Asia.

The Senate voted 99-0 in favor of the legislation, after the House of Representatives approved $81.4 billion in its version of the emergency-funding bill March 16.

Differences between the two versions of the bill must be resolved in a House and Senate conference committee before it can be sent to President Bush to be signed into law.  The Bush administration had asked for final passage before May to avoid having to dip into other Pentagon funds to pay for continuing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Key differences to be worked out include: the division of funds between military operations and foreign assistance, proposed immigration reforms, construction of a U.S. embassy in Baghdad, expanded military death benefits and an effort to save an aging Navy aircraft carrier.

The bill is the fifth emergency-spending plan Bush has sent to Congress for military operations since the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. The bill would provide approximately $74.5 billion for defense-related expenses, about $500 million less than the president's original request.

The bulk of the defense funds would go to the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, the two military services bearing the brunt of the combat operations.  The money would pay for body armor, medical supplies, night-vision devices, communication equipment, weapons, ammunition and armor kits for combat vehicles.

The Senate agreed to spend $592 million for a new embassy in Baghdad, which would become the largest U.S. Embassy in the world, but the House of Representatives had rejected including it under emergency funding in its spending bill.

The proposed legislation includes $389.6 million for 650 new U.S. Border Patrol agents, 250 new immigration investigators, 168 new immigration-enforcement agents and deportation officers, and 2,000 additional detention beds in various law enforcement centers around the country.  Some of that funding originally had been designated to go to international peacekeeping efforts.

The spending measure also includes $470 million for food aid.

Progress on the Senate bill was slowed when debate began on several immigration amendments that had been offered earlier, but were defeated as the senators began moving toward a final vote on the entire spending measure.

The Senate overwhelmingly adopted an unusual amendment to the bill that would press the White House to abandon its practice of using supplemental spending bills to pay for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and instead including that funding in the regular defense budget submitted early each year.

SENATE CONFIRMS NEGROPONTE AS FIRST U.S. INTELLIGENCE CHIEF

The Senate also voted 98-2 April 21 to confirm Ambassador John D. Negroponte to become the nation's first director of national intelligence.

The post of national intelligence director was created in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which was passed in reaction to the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission report issued in September 2004. 

Negroponte will be empowered to set and develop intelligence budgets and oversee operations of 15 intelligence agencies, but his authority will be more limited regarding some Pentagon intelligence programs, which will continue to answer to the defense secretary.

The Senate Intelligence Committee approved Negroponte's nomination April 14.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts said Negroponte, who most recently served as ambassador to Iraq and the United Nations, "has a demonstrated record as an outstanding manager and leader."

President Bush issued a statement praising the Senate on its rapid approval of Negroponte.

"I commend the Senate for moving quickly to confirm John Negroponte as the first director of national intelligence.  I look forward to working closely with him," Bush said.  "As the DNI, Ambassador Negroponte will lead a unified intelligence community as it reforms and adapts to the new challenges of the 21st century."