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Congressman Steve Rothman (D - NJ), a member of the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Defense, voted Thursday in favor of H.R. 3326, the Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Appropriations Act. The bill passed the U.S. House 400 to 30 and must now be conferenced with the Senate defense bill, which has yet to be passed. The House spending measure determines all federal funding for the Department of Defense, making key investments in the well-being and readiness of our military forces, missile defense, and military equipment.
"I am proud to support this bill, which puts our volunteer forces first, by providing them with outstanding medical care, a 3.4% pay raise, and the best equipment," said Rothman. "We made a commitment to give our troops the best possible care for their service to our country. With this bill, we are keeping that commitment and protecting them and providing for their families, as our brave soldiers go into harms way in defense of our nation."
"In addition to funding American weapons and warfighter programs to protect the United States now and in the future, I am proud to have helped secure funding in this bill for joint United States-Israeli missile defense programs such as "David's Sling" and the ARROW anti-tactical ballistic missile program," said Rothman. "These important collaborative missile defense programs not only help the United States prepare for future threats to our homeland, but they allow the State of Israel, our most important ally in the Middle East, and one of our most important strategic partners in the world, to posses the ability to defend itself against its adversaries."
This bill appropriates $636.3 billion for the Department of Defense for Fiscal Year 2010. This is the first time since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan in 2001 that funding for war operations has been included in the regular appropriations bill - rather than a supplemental expenditure "off line." Working with the Obama Administration, Congress has worked to ensure that war operations are properly accounted for within the regular budget process.
— ANDY LAGOMARSINO, NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
You have always championed for your constituents. However, I am completely unhappy about the defense bill and the sending of 30,000 troops to Afghanistan at a time that our economy needs all the money socked back into the restructuring growth of the American economy. Also, many Afghanistan veterans and CIA agents who are familiar with this country say that no amount of troops with guns and bullets will win there. If anything, we need to help them be able to re-build their infrastructure which is a better way of fighting terrorists. The more our Senators and Congressmen let The Pentagon lead our country by the nose in a war with bullets and death, the more our country will be put in harm's way. We need our troops here to protect our home soil, not be in a foreign land, one of the poorest in the world, with a war that will cost billions and cause the loss of more lives. Didn't we learn this in Vietnam? I implore you to help defeat this bill in the senate and re-think a strategy that is a mistake and will never work and will never be won in a culture our men and women and our country will never understand.