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DEFENSE

Mr. KERRY.

Providing a sufficient national defense is one of the bedrock responsibilities of our Government to its people. I stand behind no Member of this institution in my commitment to an adequate defense . But I do not believe a gold-plated defense serves our Nation's interests, and I know without doubt that the tax dollars we spend for weapons and armies beyond those our armed services chiefs believe are necessary result in shortchanging our people in other vital ways, both now and in the future.

Despite a number of component decisions that appear to me to be carefully considered and justified, the defense and national security portion of this omnibus bill demonstrates the inability of this Republican-controlled Congress to make tough choices when it comes to defense . While the budget negotiators used approximately $1 billion in defense spending to offset antiterrorism efforts funded in this bill, the bill still contains $9.3 billion more than the Pentagon's budget request. Illustrative of the flawed decisions that contributed to this distressing overrun is the Ballistic Missile Defense Program.

Certainly one is not vulnerable to the charge of failing to prepare for a ballistic missile threat by supporting the Pentagon's and administration's request for $2.9 billion for their BMD effort. Indeed, I strongly support the vigorous research and development effort to enhance our technical capabilities to spot, track, intercept, and destroy intercontinental ballistic missiles and their warheads, and I have been a consistent supporter of programs to develop and field theater ballistic missiles .

Unfortunately, the Republicans cannot recognize when they have had enough of a good thing. They insisted on spending an additional $885 million for ballistic missile defense .

The absence of the spending discipline with respect to defense and national security that the Republicans adamantly insist be directed toward domestic Government services is the cause of this legislation's single greatest flaw--an unsupported and unsupportably high aggregate appropriation for defense.