WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Rosa. L. DeLauro (Conn.-3), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, today released the following statement in response to the Fiscal Year 2005 supplemental request submitted to Congress last night by President Bush. The supplemental calls for nearly $82 billion, which will go toward increased spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, aid to tsunami victims, and military equipment. The supplemental is one of the largest emergency requests in recent U.S. history – it exceeds the combined 2006 budget request for the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and Housing and Urban Development and is nearly five times larger than savings expected from cuts to discretionary spending next year.

“I intend to support this supplemental, which provides important funding for the U.S. to keep its promise to our troops in Iraq, to the victims of the tsunami, to the peacekeeping efforts underway in the Sudan. I am especially pleased that it contains funding for desperately needed Sikorsky Black Hawks.

“But I remain concerned by this administration’s accounting methods, especially when the national deficit could reach close to a half trillion dollars this year. Absent a long-term plan to secure the peace abroad and put our country back on the track of fiscal responsibility, this massive spending request only drives our country deeper into debt and deeper into Iraq. Success depends on a commitment to both.”