Conyers on National Defense Authorization Act: Time for Priorities

WASHINGTON D.C. — Congressman John Conyers, Jr., Chairman of the House Committee on Judiciary and Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus made the following statement on the National Defense Authorization Act:

Currently 25,245 young men and women have been injured and 3,400 have lost their lives because of this Administration’s catastrophic choice to invade Iraq against the advice of military and foreign policy experts. I cannot in good conscience vote to support and continually fund the Administration’s unjust and unwinnable occupation of Iraq.

While H.R. 1585 allocates funds for much needed resources for our troops and their families, it also funds systems such as missile defense that I believe are both wasteful and unnecessary for our nation’s security. Budgets are moral documents; they make explicit in dollars and cents the priorities of our nation. I have long opposed bloated defense appropriations that steer our resources away from critical domestic needs such as health care, housing and education. This authorization is an improvement upon past legislation, but it does not go far enough in reigning in America’s military budget. We still don’t have our priorities straight.