USA — Congress Approves Supplemental War-Funding Bill

WASHINGTON, July 28, 2010 — The U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives yes­ter­day approved pas­sage of the Defense Department’s sup­ple­men­tal war-fund­ing bill, most of which will be used to pay for oper­a­tions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma and Pen­ta­gon offi­cials said pas­sage of the near­ly $59 bil­lion sup­ple­men­tal was crit­i­cal for sup­port­ing over­seas-deployed troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill now awaits the president’s signature. 

Pen­ta­gon Spokesman Geoff Mor­rell said Defense Sec­re­tary Robert M. Gates applaud­ed pas­sage of the bill, which the Sen­ate had passed last week. 

“Over the past sev­er­al weeks, we have had to take extra­or­di­nary mea­sures to fund our mil­i­tary oper­a­tions around the world this late in the fis­cal year,” Mor­rell said in a state­ment, “but thank­ful­ly the mon­ey pro­vid­ed in the sup­ple­men­tal ensures that we will be able to con­tin­ue the draw­down of U.S. forces in Iraq while we plus-up forces in Afghanistan as part of our efforts to dis­rupt, dis­man­tle and defeat al-Qaida.” 

Most of the $58.8 bil­lion con­tained in the sup­ple­men­tal will be used for oper­a­tions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The sup­ple­men­tal also includes $13.38 bil­lion for Viet­nam vet­er­ans’ Agent Orange expo­sure pro­grams; $5.1 bil­lion for dis­as­ter relief to the Fed­er­al Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency; $2.9 bil­lion for Hait­ian earth­quake relief; $178 mil­lion for the Army Corps of Engi­neers to respond to nat­ur­al dis­as­ters; and $50 mil­lion to improve port facil­i­ty access in Guam. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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