mr. speaker , i want to comment briefly on the $ 82 billion spending bill that will be approved today for the ongoing u.s. military campaigns in iraq and afghanistan .  i will support this bill .  i am pleased it includes additional money for body armor and armored vehicles for our troops .  it includes money to purchase bomb-jamming devices to protect our troops from roadside bombs .  i also support the improved life insurance death benefits for military personnel and their families .  and , i am hopeful that the additional funds that are in the bill to train and equip security forces in iraq all afghanistan will be expeditious and well spent .  this money is critical if afghan and iraqi forces are to take over security duties from american troops , which will allow our men and women to finally come home .  i have called for negotiating a timeline for the withdrawal of american troops with the new iraqi government , hopefully to be completed within the year .  but , for that to become a reality , well-equipped and competent security forces in iraq and afghanistan must be prepared to take our place .  this bill will help achieve that goal .  i am also pleased that the final bill retained language inserted in the senate directing the president to include future requests to fund the u.s. presence in iraq in his regular budget .  we have been in iraq for more than two years and in afghanistan for more than three years .  the fact that we still have troops in iraq should not come as a surprise to the budget writers at the white house and the pentagon .  it is not appropriate to continue funding these long-term , ongoing operations via supplemental appropriations bills , which are considered outside of the normal budget procedures and restrictions .  while i support the bill , i am outraged that , more than two years after the u. s. invaded iraq , the pentagon leadership has not gotten their act together to adequately protect our troops and to come up with a plan to get them home .  as columnist mark shields pointed out late last year , in the three years immediately after pearl harbor , the united states produced the following to win world war ii : 296 , 429 aircraft , 102 , 3351 tanks , 87 , 620 warships , and 2 , 455 , 694 trucks .  at the time , the u.s. population was 132 million and the size of our economy was less than $ 100 billion .  yet , approaching three years into the u.s. occupation of iraq , the united states , with a population of almost 300 million and defense spending of $ 500 billion a year , under the failed leadership of the pentagon , only 6 , 000 of the nearly 20 , 000 humvees in iraq are factory armored versions and more than 8 , 000 of the 9 , 128 medium and heavy trucks used in iraq are without armor .  despite repeated promises from the pentagon leadership that the situation is getting better , a recent article in the new york times showed that the emperor has no clothes .  as the article details , one marine company has returned home to expose the reality of their tour in iraq , `` one they say was punctuated not only by a lack of armor , but also by a shortage of men and planning that further hampered their efforts in battle , destroyed morale and ruined the careers of some of their most competent warriors. '' i have heard similar stories from the oregon national guard members i have talked to .  how did this happen ?  since the september 11 , 2001 , terrorist attacks against our country ; congress has provided the pentagon with $ 1.6 trillion -- $ 167 billion in supplemental appropriations bills for fiscal years 2001-2005 ; and $ 1.45 trillion in regular defense appropriations for fiscal years 2002-2005 .  today 's bill will add $ 75 billion or so to the pentagon budget .  given that level of funding , it is hard to understand why our troops continue to suffer shortages of critical equipment .  it is hard to understand until you remember that secretary rumsfeld and the other civilian leaders at the pentagon argued that our troops would be greeted in iraq as liberators with flowers and candy , not the bullets and bombs that have led to more than 1 , 500 of our soldiers getting killed .  before , the invasion , the pentagon planned to reduce our troop levels to 20 , 000-30 , 000 within a few weeks of overthrowing saddam hussein .  the fact that 150 , 000 u.s. troops remain in iraq more than a year and a half after the war began shows how badly the pentagon leadership miscalculated the post-war situation .  those miscalculations also led the pentagon to vastly underestimate the equipment that our troops would need to survive and succeed in iraq .  first , the pentagon leadership did not even order the necessary equipment like body armor , armored humvees and bomb jamming devices .  for example , under the pentagon 's original war plan , the pentagon planned to have only 235 armored humvees in iraq for the 20 , 000 troops who would remain after overthrowing saddam hussein .  then , when it became clear that this equipment was necessary , the pentagon did not procure it with any sense of urgency .  as the new york times article i mentioned above noted , `` the army 's procurement system , which also supplies the marines , has come under fierce criticism for underperforming in the war , and to this day it has only one small contractor in ohio armoring new humvees. '' the performance of secretary rumsfeld and his senior leadership at the pentagon has been a disgrace .  unfortunately , it is our troops who have had to pay the price .  