By Eric Stock
WASHINGTON – As Congress debates a $577 billion defense spending bill, U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger acknowledges the Defense Department hasn’t always been wise with the money it has spent.
Kinzinger told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin one example involved the mine resistant armored personnel carrier or M-RAP – several of them were destroyed by homemade bombs in Iraq before the vehicles were redone.
PODCAST: Listen to Scott and Colleen’s interview with Kinzinger on WJBC.
“Let’s take a lesson from that, how do we do it cheap and how to we do it quickly and try to apply that to other areas,” Laughlin said. “There’s no doubt when the money was flying good, there were boondoggles. I guess the only thing we can do now is learn from it.”
Kinzinger added he believes the U.S. spends a proportional amount of money on defense, saying a big economy comes with big responsibilities.
The proposal measure includes a 10-percent increase in equipment procurement, a three-percent increase for operations and maintenance, and two-percent for military pay raises.
President Obama has threatened to veto the spending bill, because it pulls in money from a separate fund which he says is a budget trick intended to avoid across-the-board cuts.
Broadband
The Federal Communications Commission is looking to offer broadband service to low-income families. It’s through the same Lifeline program that enables low-income families to get emergency phone service.
Kinzinger sits on a technology subcommitee in the House that will take up the proposal next week.
“I’m really open to the idea but it’s going to be a long process of what’s called USF (Universal Service Fund) reform,” Kinzinger said. “We’ll hopefully find a way ahead.”
The FCC is expected to vote on the plan next week. Some GOP critics have said the program needs to get a better handle on abuse before its expanded.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
