The President signed the FY2006 defense appropriations bill into law, P.L. 109-148 , on December 30, 2005, and he signed the FY2006 defense authorization into law, P.L. 109-163 , on January 6, 2006. On Sunday, December 18, House and Senate conferees filed agreements both on the FY2006 defense appropriations bill ( H.R. 2863 ) and on the FY2006 defense authorization bill ( H.R. 1815 ). On December 19, the House approved the appropriations conference agreement by a vote of 308-106 and the authorization conference agreement by a vote of 371-41. On December 21, the Senate approved the conference agreement on the defense authorization bill, and it approved the appropriations conference agreement by 93-0, though only after removing from the bill a provision to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Senate also approved by a vote of 48-45 an enrolling resolution ( S.Con.Res. 74 ) instructing the Clerk of the House to enroll the bill without the ANWR provisions. The House approved the enrolling resolution on December 22, clearing the bill for the President. The appropriations bill not only provides funding for the Department of Defense, but it is also a vehicle for other measures, including reallocation of $29 billion in Hurricane Katrina recovery funds, emergency funding of $3.8 billion for avian flu preparedness, and an across-the-board spending cut of $8.5 billion. Headline issues that have emerged in action on the defense bills, include Oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: The conference agreement on the appropriations bill included a provision to allow oil drilling in ANWR, a measure that had been attached to the budget reconciliation bill but that was rejected in the House. The provision allocated projected revenues to Alaska, Katrina relief, and the LIHEAP energy program. Opponents of ANWR drilling resisted the measure in the Senate, and, in a key test vote, on December 21, the Senate refused to invoke cloture on the appropriations conference report by a vote of 56-44 (with 60 votes required). The Senate then passed the appropriations conference report, minus the ANWR provison, and approved, by a vote of 48-45, an enrolling resolution to instruct the Clerk of the House to remove the ANWR provision from the defense bill. The House approved the resolution on December 22, thus clearing the appropriations bill, without ANWR drilling, for the President. Other measures added to the defense appropriations bill: Along with ANWR drilling, the defense appropriations bill became a vehicle for several pending congressional measures, including a $29 billion reallocation of funds for Katrina relief and reconstruction, a $3.8 billion measure for avian flu preparedness, and a 1% across-the-board cut in FY2006 appropriations totaling $8.5 billion. All of these measures are included in the enacted bill. Cuts in defense spending in the defense appropriations bill: The House-passed defense appropriations bill trimmed $3 billion from the Administration request, and the defense appropriations bill as passed by the Senate trimmed $7 billion, leaving those amounts available for non-defense appropriations. The cuts did not include significant reductions in major weapons programs, but instead came mainly from eliminating funds that the committees found unnecessary to carry out requested programs in personnel and operating accounts. The largest reductions in the military personnel accounts were for programs that were underexecuted in FY2005. Congress has made similar cuts for the past couple of years. In part, it appears, that expenses have been financed through supplemental funds. The largest reductions in the operation and maintenance accounts were for depot maintenance workloads that are not needed because equipment is being used for the war and repair costs are being covered with supplemental appropriations. So, though indirectly, large emergency supplemental funding has offset regular defense appropriations, freeing up non-emergency funds for non-defense programs. The White House Statement of Administration Policy on the Senate appropriations bill, issued on September 30, objected to the Senate reduction and warned of a veto if the final appropriations bill "significantly underfunds" defense "to avoid a reduction in non-security spending." House and Senate appropriators finally agreed to trim $4.4 billion from the request, and they added $0.1 billion to the military construction bill. In a measure attached to the defense appropriations bill, Congress also approved an across-the-board cut in all appropriations, which trims an additional $4.1 billion from Department of Defense funds. So, in all, Congress provided $8.4 billion less for DOD than the Administration had requested (see Table 4 ). Prisoner abuse: Treatment of detainees became a major issue in Senate consideration of the defense authorization bill and subsequently of the defense appropriations bill. On the authorization bill, in July Senator Levin proposed an amendment to establish an independent commission on treatment of detainees. Senator McCain proposed one amendment to prohibit cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of persons in U.S. custody and another to establish for the Defense Department uniform interrogation standards as authorized by the Army field manual on intelligence interrogations. Senator Warner proposed an alternative amendment to require the Secretary of Defense to establish uniform standards for detention and interrogation. And Senators McCain and Graham proposed an amendment to provide statutory authority for the Defense Department to use military tribunals to determine the status of detainees. The formal White House Statement of Administration Policy on the authorization bill warned of a veto if the bill includes any measure that would establish a commission on detainees or regulate "the detention, treatment or trial of terrorists." With action on the authorization bill delayed, Senator McCain offered an amendment to the defense appropriations bill that combined two of his authorization proposals. On October 5, by a vote of 90-9, the Senate approved an amendment (1) to require the Defense Department to adhere to regulations in the Army field manual on interrogations in questioning detainees under DOD control or on DOD facilities and (2) to prohibit any federal agency from engaging in cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of detainees. Subsequently, when the Senate resumed consideration of the defense authorization, Senator McCain offered the same measure as an amendment and it was accepted by voice vote on November 4. Later, Senator Graham withdrew his original proposal to provide statutory authority for tribunals to review the status of prisoners at Guantanamo and offered a revised amendment that would require the Secretary of Defense to establish regulations for the tribunals, require that the senior civilian in charge of tribunals be confirmed by the Senate, and allow only limited court appeals of tribunal decisions. This led to an extensive debate about court oversight of the tribunal. The Senate rejected an amendment by Senator Bingaman to allow court review of habeas corpus petitions. Senators Graham and Levin then agreed on, and the Senate approved, a compromise version of the Graham amendment that expanded the range of potential court appeals of tribunals decisions. The conference agreements on the authorization and appropriations bills both include, without change, the McCain amendments requiring DOD adherence to the Army field manual on interrogations and prohibiting cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of detainees. Conferees added a new provision, modeled on the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to ensure that U.S. government personnel accused of illegal treatment of detainees may assert as a defense that they did not know that practices were unlawful. Conferees also added a requirement that Iraqi security personnel be instructed in interrogation techniques and receive translated copies of the Army field manual. The conference agreements also include an amended version of the Graham-Levin amendment establishing procedures for tribunals. Exit strategy for Iraq: On May 25, the full House rejected by a vote of 128-300 an amendment to the defense authorization bill by Representative Woolsey expressing the sense of Congress that the President should develop a plan to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq. In floor debate on the defense appropriations bill, Representative Pelosi offered an amendment to require an Administration report on measures of progress in Iraq that would permit a withdrawal—in effect, an exit strategy. The Rules Committee did not agree to protect the proposal from a point of order, however, and it was subsequently ruled out of order as legislation on an appropriations bill. On July 20, the House approved by a vote of 291-137 an amendment to the foreign affairs authorization bill ( H.R. 2601 ) by Representative Ros-Lehtinen stating that calls for "an early withdrawal" from Iraq are counterproductive and that it is U.S. policy to withdraw only "when it is clear that United States national security and foreign policy goals relating to a free and stable Iraq have been or are about to be achieved." The Senate debated U.S. Iraq policy extensively when it resumed action on the authorization bill in November. On November 15, the Senate rejected a Levin amendment that would, in effect, have required the Administration to establish a schedule that would tie withdrawals of troops to progress in Iraq. But the Senate agreed to a very modestly revised version of the Levin amendment without the final provision on troop withdrawals. As agreed to, the amendment states that 2006 should be a transition year in which Iraqi security forces take on increasing responsibility for security and that this should lead to U.S. troop withdrawals, and it requires Administration reports on a schedule for improved conditions in Iraq that would permit the redeployment of U.S. forces. Two days later, on November 17, Representative Murtha, the ranking Democrat on the defense appropriations subcommittee, opened a new phase of the national debate about Iraq policy when he called for redeploying U.S. military forces out of Iraq as soon as possible, arguing that the U.S. presence was making the security situation worse. On November 18, following a tumultuous debate, the House rejected by a vote of 403-6 a resolution ( H.Res.