Business as Usual in Capitol Hill, NH Delegation says
WASHINGTON—The New Hampshire Republican delegation said Thursday that Congress would continue with scheduled business-including a vote on President Bush’s proposed budget-even as the United States launched initial ground attacks against Iraqi forces on the Kuwaiti border and bombed government buildings throughout Baghdad.
Sen. Judd Gregg said in an interview that he expected the president to submit a supplemental budget request for defense and homeland security funds, which every delegation member said they would vote for. Bush could submit the supplemental as early as tomorrow, Gregg said, but most likely by the beginning of next week.
“We will do what is necessary to support the troops,” Gregg said. “Whatever funding is required in order to give them every resource they need to be successful and to protect themselves is what we will do.”
Lawmakers do not know how much the president will request for the war and the inevitable cost of rebuilding Iraq, but Rep. Jeb Bradley said the figure could be anywhere from $40 billion to $70 billion.
Congress continued to debate the president’s budget Thursday and a vote was expected Friday morning.
Gregg said he was disappointed by the Senate vote Wednesday to exclude language in the budget that would have allowed oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Gregg said Congress should be focusing on the “huge issue” of energy in three ways-conserving, renewing and increasing domestic production of oil.
“The ANWR issue has become unfortunately more of a political debate than a substantive debate,” Gregg said. “We can drill for energy in ANWR in a very substantive way . . . and have virtually no impact on the environment up there but have an extremely positive impact on the national reserve of oil and gas. It’s a resource which we really need to use; otherwise we put ourselves at the mercy of sheikdoms in the Middle East and unstable governments in Latin America.”
While these budget-related issues were the first orders of business, the delegation agreed that the war was on many minds on Capitol Hill.
“[The war with Iraq] was a topic of conversation here at the Capitol, as I’m sure it is all across the country,” Sen. John Sununu said in an interview. The current military action was discussed yesterday afternoon at a meeting of the Republican Conference, Sununu said, and would probably come up again at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on U.S. Embassy security later in the day.
“People understand that this is action to protect our national security interests,” Sununu said. “[Congress is] thinking about and concerned for the families and the men and women that are overseas taking risks and making sacrifices for our national security and we’re all hoping that this military action is successful and that the loss of life, both in terms of military personnel and civilians, is absolutely kept to a minimum.”
Rep. Charlie Bass said his office was “amazingly unruffled” by the start of war late Wednesday night.
“The world is going on, and obviously we have a lot of different issues that we’re working on,” he said in an interview. “The budget is on the floor this afternoon and that debate is ongoing. I have a regular schedule, and people have been coming in to visit me, students and constituents and so forth.”
Rep. Jeb Bradley said there is concern about terrorist attacks against Americans, particularly after the terror alert level was raised Tuesday, but he is confident that heightened security around the Capitol will protect staff members and enable Congress to continue with its business.
“I think we’re prepared for the possibility of a terrorist attack and I think it’s important to continue to do our jobs,” Bradley said in an interview. “Yes, be prepared, but we’ve got jobs to do, and it’s important that we maintain that function, not just members of Congress but all Americans.”
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
