BUSH VOWS TO BLOCK PAY RAISE FOR AMERICA’S TROOPS OVER YUCCA MOUNTAIN FUNDING

President Plays Politics with National Defense as Part of Effort to Dump Radioactive Waste in Nevada

(Washington D.C. -- September 10, 2008) Congresswoman Shelley Berkley today called on President Bush to put America’s fighting forces and the nation’s security ahead of his desire to see the state of Nevada transformed into a nuclear garbage dump. The White House threatened this week to veto a defense bill that would fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and provide a 3.9% pay increase to members of the military. Among the reasons for the veto threat cited by the administration was a $50 million cut in funding for the Bush-McCain Yucca Mountain plan, a project with a price tag that has now grown to $100 billion.

“President Bush is willing to block a pay raise for our troops and to delay funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan all in the name of dumping toxic nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain,” said Berkley.

“Clearly he is more concerned about nuclear industry profits than he is about our fighting men and women or the military families across the nation who will suffer financially if the President succeeds in stopping this defense bill. We should be rewarding the courage and dedication of America’s troops, not holding up a pay raise for these warriors in order to spend billions more on the reckless Bush-McCain Yucca Mountain plan.”

Berkley is calling on Bush to immediately drop his veto threat and has stated that she will vote to override the White House should the President attempt to block passage of this critical package. Among the bill’s provisions are the following:

• Pay Raise for America’s troops: authorizes a 3.9 percent across-the-board pay raise for military personnel.
• $70 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan operations.
• $26 billion for military health care.
• $3 billion to protect U.S. forces against IED’s.

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