H.R. 5122 (2006)

H.R. 5122, also known as the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 was a bill passed in the United States Congress on September 29, 2006 and signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006 becoming Public Law 109-364. House Vote - 396 Ayes (168 Democrats/1 Independent) with 31 Nays and 5 present not voting. H.R. 5122 includes:

• $10,876,609,000 allocated to the U.S. Army
• $17,383,857,000 allocated to the U.S. Navy
• $24,235,951,000 allocated to the U.S. Air Force
• $21,111,559,000 allocated to Defense-wide activities ($181,520,000 of this amount "is authorized for the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation.")^[1]

• Expansion of the President's power to declare martial law under revisions to the Insurrection Act, and take charge of United States National Guard troops without state governor authorization when public order has been lost and the state and its constituted authorities cannot enforce the law (amended in 2008 by H.R.4986 SEC.1068^[2]);

• The elimination of the position of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction as of October 1, 2007, currently held by Republican lawyer Stuart Bowen, which is in charge of auditing expenditures in Iraq, transitioning Inspector General responsibilities to the Inspector General offices in the departments of State and Defense, now that the Coalition Provisional Authority is dissolved and Iraq is now a sovereign nation.

• A sunset date of September 30, 2012.

Amendment to Section 1076 of the law

In 2008, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 struck much of the existing text in section 1076. That same section had been what Naomi Wolf talked about when she commented to Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!: "You don’t make it easier for the President to declare martial law, as we just did with the 2007 Defense Authorization Act."^[3] The revised section of the law, section 1068 had one amended section had multiple parts with the same exact text. These sections (bolded to show the similar parts) read as follows:

`Sec. 333. Interference with State and Federal law

`The President, by using the militia or the armed forces, or both, or by any other :means, shall take such measures as he considers necessary to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy, if it--

`(1) so hinders the execution of the laws of that State, and of the United States

within the State, that any part or class of its people is deprived of a right, :privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law, and :the constituted authorities of that State are unable, fail, or refuse to protect that :right, privilege, or immunity, or to give that protection; or

`(2) opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes :the course of justice under those laws.

In any situation covered by clause (1), the State shall be considered to have :denied the equal protection of the laws secured by the Constitution.'.^[4]

References

External links

• Text of H.R. 5122
• Morales, Frank. Bush Moves Toward Martial Law. Global Research. October 26, 2006. (Note: the portion of the law to which this editorial refers has been repealed as of 2008.)