Fifty-eight of the 62 members of the House Armed Services Committee voted on May 9 for a $508.3 billion military authorization bill for fiscal 2008. Four members did not vote. No member voted against the budget legislation. The entire U.S. House of Representatives approved essentially the same bill by a vote of 397 to 27 on May 16. "This year's defense authorization bill ... will support our troops in the field [and] enable our nation to meet immediate military requirements," said Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), chairman of the House panel.

The bipartisan votes in the House indicate that a vast majority of its members agree that it's time to protect our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan from the scourge of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which have been upgraded in the last year with deadly, shaped charges. IEDs are killing scores of U.S. troops every month.

To give our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan the weapons they need to defend themselves against a quickly adapting insurgency, the House shifted funds from modernization programs to systems soldiers need now, like the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle. Lawmakers added funding for the anti-IED vehicle and cut funds for the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program by $867 million.

Now comes a hue and cry from FCS prime contractor Boeing Co., the nation's No. 2 military supplier, warning that cuts to the Army program represent a misguided attempt to use the war budget to create a "peace dividend." Worse, for Boeing anyway, proposed cuts in the FCS program could, according to a Reuters report, "eat into [Boeing's] sales for this year and next." About half of Boeing's estimated $65 billion in revenue this year will come from weapons programs.

Does James F. Albaugh, head of Boeing's defense unit, really believe his company will suffer if the FCS program, which a Republican-controlled Congress also attempted to cut, is scaled back to reflect military realities? More likely, Boeing and other contractors are frantically lobbying to head off more cuts after five years of record revenues from weapons contracts.

U.S. military depots are filled with wrecked equipment destroyed by IEDs. The frightful death toll keeps rising. Our troops need armor and other defenses against IEDs. The digital battlefield, if it even remains relevant to a global war on terror, will have to wait.

Albaugh said last week that lobbying efforts to restore FCS funding are getting some "traction" in Washington. In observance of Memorial Day, let's hope the lobbyists get stuck in the mud.