[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 128 (Wednesday, September 17, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H8372-H8378]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IRAQ PRINCIPLES
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
General Leave
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their
remarks on the subject of this Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Maryland?
There was no objection.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I rise this afternoon to begin the
Congressional Black Caucus's Special Order to address the President's
proposal to spend an additional $87 billion for the war in Iraq.
Mr. Speaker, since the President addressed the Nation on September 7
regarding the war in Iraq, the Congressional Black Caucus has carefully
evaluated the current state of where we are in Iraq and established a
set of principles that we believe should be our guide as we move
forward.
Before I get into the substance of our principles, I want to
recognize the diligent work of the Congressman from North Carolina (Mr.
Watt) for his leadership in drafting these principles and working very
carefully with other members of the caucus to come to consensus. He
willingly took on the task of synthesizing and framing the views of 39
Members of Congress. That is not an easy task. The Congressman from
North Carolina (Mr. Watt) handled it masterfully. I also want to thank
all the members of the Congressional Black Caucus who helped us to get
where we are today. It truly was a team effort.
Mr. Speaker, in October of last year, the Congressional Black Caucus
issued a statement of principles with respect to any decision to go to
war with Iraq. Although most of us were prepared to support broad-based
international action sanctioned by the United States National Security
Council, we opposed the unilateral first strike by the United States
without first receiving clearly demonstrated evidence of an imminent
threat of attack upon the United States.
At that time the Bush administration had not presented us with the
evidence that we needed, both constitutionally and morally, to support
its plan. It has not done so, I must note, to this day.
We argued last year that absent clear evidence of an imminent threat
to the people of the United States, a unilateral first strike against
Iraq would undermine the international moral authority of the United
States that is so critical in our struggle against terrorism.
We were deeply apprehensive that the Middle East would be
destabilized, that unilateral U.S. action would commit this Nation to a
long-term and, perhaps, indefinite foreign engagement that would cost
America dearly both in American lives and in national resources.
Last year's concerns have now become this year's harsh realities,
realities that we must face as a Nation and that we must overcome.
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On almost a daily basis we hear regretfully about American soldiers
who are being killed or injured in Iraq. The Bush administration has
been unable or unwilling to truly internationalize the process toward
restoring control of Iraq to the Iraqi people. As a Nation, we are
already scores of billions of dollars poorer than we were last October.
Now the Bush administration has presented the Congress with another $87
billion check that it is asking us to sign. There is no question that
we, along with our other colleagues in the Congress, will do everything
within our power to support and protect our troops and provide for
their families. That is a paramount concern for us, always has been and
always will be. Our duty in this regard is clear.
Nevertheless, before the Congress of the United States provides the
President with the authority to spend more of the American people's
money on Iraq, we have a constitutional responsibility to demand a
clear, comprehensive, and publicly articulated analysis of the Bush
administration's management of our involvement both past and present.
The administration does not even pretend that this $87 billion
proposal will be its final request for funds. Before I proceed, I would
like to make two points that I recently read in The Washington Post. In
this particular piece it was noted that the $87 billion request by the
President is three times the amount of money the Federal Government
will spend on elementary and secondary education this year, and two
times as much as the budget for homeland security. The article also
noted research from Yale economic researcher William Nordhaus, which
noted that the $166 billion that has been spent, or requested, exceeds
the inflation-adjusted cost of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812,
the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, and the first
Persian Gulf War combined, and approaches the $191 billion inflation-
adjusted cost of World War I.
Mr. Speaker, I note these facts and the professor's research to say
if left unquestioned, approving this $87 billion would amount to
another blank check. That cannot be allowed to happen.
To state the matter gently, the administration has suffered serious
damage to its credibility on the subject of Iraq. As a first step
toward repairing this loss of trust, the American people and their
elected representatives deserve to know in far greater detail the
information that convinced the President to go to war.
In addition, the President must provide us with a far more detailed
game plan for the future. He should outline his reasoned predictions as
to the personnel and funding that will be required to complete our
involvement in Iraq and the manner in which these burdens and the
authority to address them will be shared with the United Nations. The
President should provide an accounting of the previously appropriated
funds which this administration has expended in Iraq, including details
of all Federal contracts. The President should explain to the Congress
and the American people how the additional $87 billion in funding that
he has now requested will be spent.
The Bush administration should provide the Congress with the
information that will allow us to evaluate and vote separately upon the
funding requested for the protection and support of our troops as
distinguished from the funding that the President wishes to apply to
the rebuilding of Iraq. We also deserve a full accounting of the Iraqi
resources, both recovered and anticipated, that properly can be
utilized to reduce the U.S. burden.
Above all, our troops and the American people as a whole deserve to
know the President's exit strategy. We need to know the criteria for
success that must be met before the President will agree to bring our
men and women home.
We ask these questions of the Bush administration with the respect
that should exist between coequal branches of our government. Those in
the world who oppose America should not underestimate either our
national unity or our resolve. Nevertheless, both in Baghdad and in my
hometown of Baltimore, these are hard times for the American people,
times that demand hard answers to hard questions.
Mr. Speaker, we who serve the people in the Congress of the United
States would not be fulfilling our constitutional responsibility if we
were to hand the President another blank check. We must have some
accountability for the American people's money.
Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to yield to the gentlewoman
from Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson), chairman emeritus of the
Congressional Black Caucus.
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise to voice my
concerns about the President's request for $87 billion to pursue the
administration's aims in Iraq. While I strongly support our troops and
I stand here as a strong American, and I support the President when it
is reasonable and I will continue to support those brave Americans who
are getting themselves in harm's way to defend our Nation, I think we
must ask ourselves some fundamental questions.
To this end, the Congressional Black Caucus has issued a statement of
principles as to the war in Iraq. I embrace these principles fully. I
was Chair of the caucus when we adopted our principles concerning the
war, and we still hold those principles dear. I am deeply concerned
about the cost of the war and the cost of the psyche of the people of
this Nation. I am also concerned about the economic price tag the war
is exacting on the taxpayers. We are shifting the cost of engagement to
our children and grandchildren. We are burdening ourselves with a debt
that is not only mind boggling; it is also unconscionable.
Mr. Speaker, keep in mind that the $87 billion in new funding that
the President is requesting from Congress includes more than twice the
2004 budget for the Department of Homeland Security. It is also roughly
triple the proposed appropriations for highways and roads. Keep in mind
that the combined projected costs of the theaters of operations in Iraq
and Afghanistan through September 2004 is $166 billion. That includes
the $87 billion.
{time} 1745
The President has not provided Congress with sufficient details about
how the proposed funding will be spent. The information we have been
given is vague, perhaps purposely so. Therefore, we are not able to
separately evaluate the proposed funding for the protection and
maintenance of our troops and proposed funding for rebuilding Iraq. In
my view, Congress should vote on these funding proposals separately.
Back home, people think that the greatest attention we can give the
troops is to bring them home. They really do not want more money spent
in Iraq. Moreover, the administration has not articulated an exit
strategy, nor has it given us a blueprint or a plan for bringing our
troops home. That is what the people want. It was said in the days of
old, ``My people perish for a lack of knowledge.'' We are left in that
position. Without the information, we are groping in the dark. The
American people deserve better and so does Congress. We should not give
a blank check one more time for the President to spend with his
friends.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentleman
from Virginia (Mr. Scott).
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to put some of the numbers in
perspective. I serve on the Committee on the Budget and have looked at
these numbers from the perspective of the budget. To put these in
perspective, let us begin with the first Persian Gulf war, Desert
Storm. The total cost of that war, $61.1 billion. Because we had
international cooperation, we paid 12 percent of that cost, $7.4
billion. 12 percent. The first supplemental that we have already spent
in the current Iraqi conflict, $79 billion. We have been asked for $87
billion more, a total of $166 billion. If we had had international
cooperation, 12 percent of $166 billion is $20 billion. Because of the
administration's decision to go it alone and attack unilaterally, a $20
billion problem has become a $166 billion problem. And so I commend the
chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus for asking what efforts will
be made to develop the multilateral force that can share in this
burden.
In addition, because we are already into deficit spending, this
administration should articulate how the costs of
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the war will be borne. If we are going to just borrow the money, then
we have to recognize the context of borrowing additional money. In
early 2001, budget projections were that within 10 years, we would run
up a $5 trillion surplus, enough to pay off the entire national debt,
meaning that we would have no interest on the national debt after about
2013. Because we have gone back to deficit spending instead of paying
off the national debt, we have increased the national debt such that
the interest on the national debt that we will be paying by 2013,
instead of zero, will be about as much as we are spending for national
defense. In that context, if we are going to borrow the money, let us
recognize that we are going to have to pay interest on $166 billion at
around 4 percent interest. That equals to over $6.5 billion a year,
over $100 million every week, just in interest, without paying off the
principal, just in interest for as far as the eye can see.
Let us put some of these numbers also in perspective as to what we
spend on other priorities. $166 billion between the supplemental we
have spent and the request that is before us. $166 billion. The
Department of Education every year, we appropriate less than $60
billion. Transportation, $51.5 billion. Homeland Security Department,
$35.8 billion. Those three departments combined, Education,
Transportation, Homeland Security, less than $166 billion.
Let us put it into another perspective. In our budget, we expect this
year to receive $790 billion in individual income tax. That is
everybody's individual income tax, $790 billion. About 20 percent of
the request and the supplemental, prior supplemental, amount to 20
percent of the entire individual income tax revenue. With these numbers
in hand, the CBC's request for a coherent accounting of the funds is
appropriate. It is especially appropriate when you consider the prior
claims by this administration, such as the cost of the war will be paid
by the oil revenues. Those projections turned out to be false.
Therefore, this request needs to be supported by specific plans and
documentation detailing how the prior supplemental was spent, exactly
how this request will be spent, how it will be paid for, including the
question of whether we will get multilateral help, what likelihood
there will be for future supplemental appropriations to support the war
effort. Those questions need to be answered before we can intelligently
consider the request before us.
I want to thank the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus for
bringing these questions to the forefront to make sure that we have
this information before we vote.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentleman
from Florida (Mr. Meek).
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am so glad that we have this hour
to be able to let Americans know the things they need to know about
their government. I think it is important since the gentleman from
Virginia just finished talking about what this effort and what I call
mismanagement has cost the American people and that it will cost the
American people. We need to make sure that we understand that we are
deficit spending. This is not surplus money. This is deficit spending
money. It is like for some of us Americans that are receiving these
credit cards through the mail saying that all you have to do is sign
the back and call this 1-800 number, you are automatically qualified
for $2,000 and you go out and you spend that $2,000 at a rate of like
23 percent interest rate. That is the kind of deficit spending that we
have right now. We need to continue to have a dialogue on this.
I am very disturbed by some of the things that I am hearing out of
this White House and out of the majority party as it relates to the
efforts in Iraq. At the top of the week, we had the majority leader of
this House on the Republican side saying that he is upset that the
White House has not said more and the Defense Department has not said
more about the accomplishments in Iraq. I would beg to differ. Yes,
there have been some accomplishments in Iraq, but I would beg to differ
by the fact that we have troops that do not even have armor in Iraq. I
serve on the Committee on Armed Services. We authorize billions, $480
something billion annually to the Department of Defense. I remember
asking some of the individuals in the Department of Defense, Secretary
Wolfowitz to be exact, do our troops have adequate body armor? I was
told, yes, the front line troops will have adequate body armor. Right
now we have troops that are at Walter Reed Hospital and at Bethesda
Hospital with wounds that went through the body armor, bullets that
went through the body armor that were supposed to protect them.
I think it is also important for us to understand that if this
Congress does not start asking the hard questions to this White House
and to the Department of Defense we are going to continue to have these
special appropriations. We just gave $78 billion 6 months ago. We are
giving $87 plus billion very soon and it will be more to come. When I
say that this is going on, this is just not a convenience issue, this
is hurting Leave No Child Behind in education, this is hurting social
services. I have seen people brought to the table and called out for
mismanagement for far less than the billions of dollars that have been
mishandled in this war as it relates to contract services. I think it
is important that we have to ask the tough questions. I am so glad that
the media and some Members of this Congress have called Vice President
Cheney out on the fact that the connection he claimed in the Sunday
show this past Sunday, saying that Saddam Hussein had something to do
with 9/11. I am glad to hear that the President said that is not true
today at a press conference before I came on the floor. The reason why
that was corrected in a 3-day period or in a 4-day period is that this
Congress questioned that. Democrats questioned what the Vice President
said. That is why it is important that we have a democracy. That is why
it is important no matter what party you are in if you are a Member of
this Congress that you must speak out on issues that you know when that
information is inaccurate. Intelligence in the past has been stated
about chemical weapons, things of that nature. It has been several
months now since we have been in Iraq and there are very little
chemical weapons to show for our efforts. We have to ask the hard
questions on what is the real rebuilding plan for Iraq. We have yet to
see that. Our minority leader the gentlewoman from California (Ms.
Pelosi), the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha), who is ranking
member on the Committee on Appropriations, asked for that yesterday. As
of right now, the last I checked, we still have not received it. That
is the reason why we have to continue to push for these questions so
that it is not a rubber stamp.
The reason why this administration went to the U.N. before they took
their preemptive strike or before we took our preemptive strike on Iraq
is because the American people said that they wanted them to go to the
U.N. Even though they went to the U.N. and we danced and we changed the
name of French fries here in the Capitol to freedom fries and did all
of these peripheral things, we still went in by ourselves and now we
are paying the price. We are now having to go back and say, oh, we like
the French. Oh, we feel that Germany and others, we feel that you are
good people. We need your help.
If we do not replace diplomacy on the executive branch, then we are
in for a costly, costly, long stay in Iraq. It is no longer good
enough, Mr. President, for you to say, we're going to be in Iraq as
long as we have to be in Iraq. That is not an appropriate answer. An
appropriate answer is saying, we are having real negotiations with the
Security Council at the U.N., that I am instructing the Secretary of
State that we are going to do everything in our power to continue to
get more troops in our coalition. You may ask and there are, give or
take, 115,000, 125,000 U.S. troops right now on the soil in Iraq. Some
13,000 coalition forces. But last night I saw Secretary Rumsfeld said,
oh, we have 60,000 Iraqi police officers that are a part of our
security force now. We have to make sure that we are clear. We cannot
use metaphors. We cannot allow the Department of Defense nor this White
House nor the leadership of this Congress to wiggle out of the tough
questions.
I am just as patriotic as the next person. And just because we ask
the question of this government that every last
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one of us have been voted on to be here to represent our constituents,
individuals should not be called out. General Shinseki had to resign
because he said this war would cost anywhere from $120 billion to $130
billion. Others who have said of an accurate account if we went into
this thing by ourselves of what it would cost had to resign. We in this
Congress are the only individuals who cannot be fired. We only can be
fired by the people, by the American people, and not by an executive
action.
So I ask you, and I implore, and I am so glad that the Congressional
Black Caucus has taken this stand to be the conscience of this Congress
once again. It may not be the appropriate thing in the light of those
individuals who consider themselves self-appointed patriots on behalf
of our men and women in uniform, but it was this caucus, Democratic
Caucus, that are fighting for those individuals who make under $26,000
to be able to receive a child tax credit, including those individuals
that are over there fighting, their children. Republicans said no and
are still saying no and say that the bill will not come up. We are
saying that we are willing to put the facts and figures here.
I almost feel like a member of the other party who always talked
about deficit spending, or used to talk about it. We no longer talk
about it now because it is not important. I think it is important that
we continue to raise the tough questions, that we continue to be able
to ask for an accounting as it relates to private contracts that are
being let. This peripheral, this information that is generic about
maintenance and reconstruction and turning on the power and making sure
they have water and schools, without defining it, can no longer be
accepted by this Congress. So it is important that we focus on the fine
details. I am so glad that we are here.
Mr. CUMMINGS. I am glad the gentleman raised the issue of the
opportunity, that we must take the opportunities that we have to speak
out with regard to what is happening in our country.
{time} 1800
And the fact is that he is right. Before the war the Congressional
Black Caucus raised some very crucial questions, some folks were
hollering the word ``unpatriotic,'' and we made it very clear, as we
make it clear today that we support our troops 1 million percent. We
want them to be at their very best. We want them to be well-equipped.
At the same time, we want to make sure that the crucial questions are
asked because after all, the people that we represent are the ones who
will end up paying the bill. But not only them but their children and
their children's children and their children's children's children will
be paying this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms.
Kilpatrick).
Ms. KILPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, to our distinguished chairman, who
continues to keep us focus in speaking to the needs our constituents, I
thank the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings).
I rise as one of the 39 members of the Congressional Black Caucus. We
represent over 26 million Americans all over this country. The
majorities of our districts are not African American. Some are. Most
are not. And collectively we call ourselves the conscience of the
Congress and the conscience of these United States.
Over the last 10 days after the President's announcement, my office
has been inundated with my constituents asking me, What are you going
to say? What are you going to do? Are you going to give them a blank
check? You already did that. Will you speak up?
And I am so proud of my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus
for organizing this action tonight because it us who have been charged
by God to speak out, to work in a bipartisan way in the interests of
the people of this great country. I represent over 680,000 people, as
many of my colleagues do, and 11 different communities in the State of
Michigan. Some of God's finest. Some have served in the Armed Forces.
Some have families who have died in the Armed Forces. All of them want
us to fight to protect our right of democracy that so many have fought
and died for in this country. We come here today and I as a member of
the Committee on Appropriations where I hope much of this discussion
will be had, and I want to say just from the outset the President
proposes and the Congress disposes, and that is our constitutional
right; that we as Members of this House, 435 of us, must demand that
the committees of jurisdiction receive the supplemental request, that
we are able to hold hearings on this request, and that we be able to
get information so that we can make those intelligent decisions that
our constituents sent us here to do. We have the time. We must act, as
the Constitution allows us to, that the appropriate committees, the
Select Committee on Homeland Security, that the appropriate committees,
the Committee on Appropriations, Defense Subcommittee, authorization,
all those committees that are involved, the members, and some of those
committees have 60 or 70 people on them, must have an opportunity to
hear and see and act on this supplemental request. I implore our
leadership to make sure that that happens. Eighty-seven billion dollars
now. Less than 6 months ago we gave them $79 billion because we said we
had to do that. The President requested it and we were at war.
Unilaterally first striking a country. We have never done that in the
history of our country. We call it the Department of Defense because we
defend our country. We do not strike a country. Somebody said we ought
to change that to the War Department. I am not quite there yet. We must
solve this crisis. And it is an international crisis. It was then and
it still is. That, as my colleague has mentioned, is why we are footing
much of the bill, and we know this will not be the last supplemental
unless we are able to bring in the international community.
There was no intelligence given to this Member and others before our
unilateral first strike that said Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein
were connected. Osama bin Laden, we already know we must find and rid
out the terrorists and the terrorism that he has perpetuated on the
world, which is why this is an international crisis that we find
ourselves in. Osama bin Laden on the one hand, Saddam Hussein on the
other, never at all before this unilateral first strike was there any
connection, intelligence-wise, that connected the two together. Now,
5\1/2\, 6 months later, we are not sure.
The President says that Iraq is the epicenter of terrorism now. The
way that we have disrespected the Muslim religion and any religion in
this country, we have to think about that. To them it is a religious
war. There is something different about a religious war. They think
they are in jihad as we read and discuss.
It is so critical at this time that we, as the world leaders, sit
down and try to work out in an international way the problems of the
world. Terrorism has to stop. No one in the world is safe as long as
terrorism is allowed to rear its ugly head wherever it must strike. We
already heard $166 billion should they be successful in getting this.
As was mentioned, that is three times more than we spend on education
for our children. It is two times more than the Department of Homeland
Security has today, and it is nearly three times more than we spend on
our transportation budget today.
We have got to protect our troops. We have got to make sure that they
are safe. And the parents are saying bring their children home, 18 to
25 years old. Some not properly trained. Some do not have the proper
equipment. We are a better Nation than that. That is why the
Congressional Black Caucus have come together tonight to talk to
America about what we think must happen, and we want the people to fax,
write, call, and e-mail their Congresspeople and let them know how they
feel. We want the people to fax, call, e-mail and write the White
House, let them know how they feel. The power is in the people of
America. It always has been and always will be.
So I want to put in the Record at this time the principles, the
principles that the Congressional Black Caucus adopted on March 18,
2003, and the reassuring of the principles we adopted today and present
to the people today. These are the principles that the Congressional
Black Caucus must see as we talk about this $87 billion of the people's
tax dollars.
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We affirm our stated principles from March of this year. We also
affirm our principles from October of 2002. Despite the President's
failure to follow our original statement of principles in his decisions
leading to the war, we express our full resolve to support and protect
our troops and their families. We, the members of the Congressional
Black Caucus, believe that the administration should provide an
accounting of all funds expended to date that were provided previously
appropriated by the Congress, which is the $79 million for Iraq and
Afghanistan, including details about all contracts for work related to
Iraq and Afghanistan. We know that there is a problem with many no-bid
contracts given out right now, billions of dollars. We want an
accounting of that money.
We believe that the President should provide sufficient details about
how the proposed funding will be spent to enable Congress and its
committees to evaluate separately funding proposed for the protections
and maintenance of our troops and funding proposed for rebuilding Iraq.
We, the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, as was mentioned,
believe our troops should be protected and secure. We also believe that
the humanitarian assistance that we are contemplating, some $20
billion, needs further scrutiny. The investment in their infrastructure
when our electric grids are breaking down, we need that here. We need
it for our schools. We need it for our health centers.
We, the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, believe that the
President should provide full details about how the efforts will be
paid for, including a full accounting of Iraqi resources, recovered and
anticipated, and how the President proposes to use those resources to
reduce or to reimburse the U.S. obligation.
We, the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, believe the
President should provide full details about the future obligations of
the United States personnel, funding, and decision-making and about how
responsibility and authority for these obligations will be shared with
the United Nations and/or other nations going forward.
We, the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, believe the
administration should provide to Congress full details of information
relied on by the President in his decision to go to war in that first
unilateral strike earlier this year.
We believe the President should provide details of the criteria he
will expect to be met before bringing U.S. troops home and what the
exit strategy must be.
Those are the principles that 39 members of the Congressional Black
Caucus today present to the President and to our American citizens
across this country. They are simple. We want a response. We want it
timely. And the 26 million people that we represent want to hear from
him.
I thank the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings) for his
leadership.
The Congressional Black Caucus Principles Regarding President Bush's
$87 Billion Supplemental Request
We reaffirm our Statement of Principles issued in October
2002.
Despite the President's failure to follow our original
Statement of Principles in his decisions leading to the war,
we express our full resolve to support and protect our troops
and their families.
The Administration should provide an accounting of all
funds expended to date that were previously appropriated by
the Congress, including details about all contracts for work
in or related to Iraq.
The President should provide sufficient details about how
the proposed funding will be spent to enable Congress and its
Committees to evaluate separately funding proposed for the
protection and maintenance of our troops and funding proposed
for rebuilding Iraq. Congress should vote on these funding
proposals separately.
The President should provide full details about how the
efforts will be paid for, including a full accounting of
Iraqi resources (recovered and anticipated) and how the
President proposes to use those resources to reduce or
reimburse the U.S. obligation.
The President should provide full details about the future
obligations of the United States (personnel, funding and
decisions making) and about how responsibility and authority
for these obligations will be shared with the United Nations
and/or other nations going forward.
The Administration should provide to Congress full details
of information relied on by the President in his decision to
go to war.
The President should provide details of the criteria he
will expect to be met before bringing US troops home and of
his exit strategy.
Congressional Black Caucus Principles on Military Action in Iraq
1. We oppose a unilateral first-strike action by the United
States without a clearly demonstrated and imminent threat of
attack on the United States.
2. Only Congress has the authority to declare war.
3. Every diplomatic option must be exhausted.
4. A unilateral first-strike would undermine the moral
authority of the United States, result in substantial loss of
life, destabilize the Mideast region and undermine the
ability of our nation to address unmet domestic priorities.
5. Further, any post-strike plan for maintaining stability
in the region would be costly and would require a long-term
commitment.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her statement.
And we reiterate that these questions that have been raised are basic
questions that if anybody were dealing with a family issue, a serious
family issue, these are the kinds of questions, Mr. Speaker, that
anybody, any reasonable person would ask, and we reiterate that we hope
the President will answer these questions as soon as possible.
Speaking of common sense, I yield to the gentleman from South
Carolina (Mr. Clyburn) who hails from South Carolina and also is a
previous chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and now serves as a
vice chairman of our Democratic Caucus.
Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I want
to thank the chairman for the tremendous leadership he has given to the
Congressional Black Caucus on this and other issues.
Earlier today, I joined the House Democratic leadership in sending a
letter to the gentleman from Illinois (Speaker Hastert) requesting a
detailed accounting of the money being spent on the Iraq War effort.
The public disclosure that we are requesting must include shining the
light on closed-door lucrative contracts being awarded to Halliburton,
Bechtel and other friends of this administration.
In today's Washington Post, there is an article that says that $1.7
billion has already been awarded to Bechtel, and they stand to receive
millions more in no-bid contracts.
Mr. Speaker, I think that this is outrageous. Outrageous not just
because of the issue itself but because there are two underlying issues
that I think that this administration must confront before we send any
additional money to conduct this effort in Iraq. And I want to share
with the public those two concerns of mine.
First of all, I do not know if the public realizes it or not, but a
law that we authorized last April provides for imminent danger pay of
$75 a month and $150 a month in family separation allowances for our
soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. That law expires on September
30. I do not believe that we ought to give one moment of consideration
to any additional funding to conduct this war in Iraq until we extend
this law so that those men and women who are putting their lives on the
line, who are in imminent danger, who have been separated from their
families receive compensation for doing so.
{time} 1815
The Defense Department is saying that we cannot afford to continue
this pay. I believe that the troops serving overseas ought to be our
top priority, and we ought not talk about any additional expenditures
until we make sure that they are taken care of.
The second thing I want us to consider before we start discussing any
additional funds for Iraq is this issue involving disability pay for
our veterans.
Mr. Speaker, it is interesting to me that if you were to look at a
20-year veteran who may have served 1 year in Iraq or Afghanistan and
comes home unharmed, that veteran will receive retirement benefits. But
the 20-year veteran who serves for 20 years and gets injured in Iraq,
comes home with a missing limb and becomes eligible for disability pay,
that disability pay is deducted from his or her retirement pay; and,
therefore, he or she stands in the same light as a person who never got
injured in the first place, though that person's ability to make a
living for himself or herself and his or her family diminishes greatly
because of that injury.
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We in this Congress need to correct that issue before we send one
additional soldier to fight in Iraq or Afghanistan, and this Congress
is refusing to deal with that. Yet we hear that those of us who
disapprove spending additional expenditures until we do this do not
support our troops.
This is not supporting our troops, when we put them in harm's way and
we bring them back home and do not adequately support their life's
existence. Something about this is bad wrong. I get the phone calls in
my office. I have a young lady spending almost full time dealing with
this issue. We believe that until it is resolved, we ought not be
talking about any additional funds for Iraq.
So until this administration faces up to these three issues, gives us
a light shining on these contracts, does something about extending
eminent pay allowances and family separation for our men and women, and
does something about this disabled American veterans tax that we are
putting on these people returning home with their injuries, I am not
going to support any additional expenditures in Iraq.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield to the
distinguished gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished
gentleman, the chairperson of the Congressional Black Caucus. I am
honored to join my colleagues in a very thoughtful presentation and
edification of our principles.
I rise to say two things, that Congress has to be, if you will, the
arbiter, the moral compass, the standard by which we make
determinations to save lives in America. It is imperative before we
vote for the $87 billion that we have full congressional hearings, that
we separate the vote on the support for the troops as well as
distinguishing that from the rebuild on Iraq.
We are truly committed to our troops and saving lives, protecting
them and responding to their family needs; but we cannot give a blank
check of $87 billion to this administration without a detailed plan and
exit strategy, as well as an understanding of who our allies will be.
Lastly, I believe it is imperative that we not give up on
understanding where the weapons of mass destruction are and what was
the nuclear capacity or threat at the time that we all made a conscious
decision or one of conscience to protect this land in voting for the
resolution in 2002. The American people have to have hearings on the
understanding of the weapons of mass destruction.
So I support my colleagues and thank them very much for giving me the
opportunity to share in support of this Special Order on very important
decisions that this Congress will make over the next weeks and days. I
look forward to a town hall meeting in my community on this very issue.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to
the distinguished gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms.
Norton).
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Chair of the Congressional Black
Caucus for yielding. We all owe him particular gratitude for the way in
which this entire session he has brought this caucus together on this
floor on important issues, none more important than the issue before us
today.
If I were to summarize what I have to say today, it would be that the
troops have become an abstract concept. I want to deconstruct the
concept. The proposition that I want to put forward is that two
inexcusable errors by the administration are endangering our troops in
Iraq: first, the rush to war without allies, and, secondly, the
inexcusable failure to plan for the peace.
The context of what I want to speak about further is a young man
whose funeral I went to a couple of weeks ago, Darryl Dent, 21 years
old, due home several times, extended each time. Dead.
I believe that the Darryl Dents, who are mounting up every day, are
unnecessarily mounting up; and I want to make that case today.
I want to congratulate the Chair once again on his ``Statement of
Principles as to War against Iraq'' that the caucus issued before that
war. The most important principle has been vindicated, that a
unilateral first strike action by the United States without a clearly
demonstrated and indicated threat of attack on the United States, that
notion that you do not do that kind of strike unless you know you are
in imminent danger, has been fully vindicated by multiple failures of
the administration.
I want to spell out what those failures are. First, the failure to
form a pre-war and a post-war alliance to provide adequate civilian and
military assistance to our troops in the field and to the people of
Iraq after the war; the failure to secure the peace; the failure to
prepare for the probability of an Iraqi resistance. What did we think
they were going to do, just melt into the woodwork? Or, finally, to
understand that once there was the chaos of war, we would draw in
terrorist elements following the war, the failure to prepare for what
U.S. commanders now themselves now call a guerilla war in Iraq. Was all
of this necessary, Mr. Speaker? I think not.
It comes up now in the context of an astonishing request. Nobody
expected $87 billion more. What is that, for this year alone?
I want to talk about the troops through Darryl Dent, because I think
the words need to be humanized. The only people who have been asked to
sacrifice for this war are the military. We certainly have not been
asked to sacrifice a thing, whether we are rich or poor, since we are
getting tax cuts thrown at us.
The greatest hardship has been on the people we call the Weekend
Warriors. You will notice that the Congressional Black Caucus does not
feel defensive at all about indicating that we support the troops. We
do not need to come forward and let everybody make sure you know we
support the troops. That is a truism, particularly since the troops are
disproportionately African American.
Mr. Speaker. Yes, we do support them. That is a given as well.
We also believe that once you destroy somebody's country, you invade
somebody's country, you ought to fix it up and not simply leave it in
chaos. That is the obligation that comes once you invade somebody's
country. That is an obligation, by the way, under the U.N. charter.
Winning the war in Iraq was a virtual given. But we had a special
obligation not to engage in a war of choice unless we were in imminent
danger the moment we decided to have a volunteer Army, because that
Army we knew from the outset would be composed disproportionately of
Weekend Warriors.
We were under a particular obligation to make sure that we did not
call people who we gave to understand that, yes, in the event of a war
of last resort you will be called up, but basically there was not much
chance that you would be called up. We had no right to go into a war of
choice unless we had no other choice. They were prepared to fight a
defensive war, they were prepared to fight this war of choice, but it
is unfair that we have asked them to do that. They are all surprised.
They are as astonished as anybody is. And we are having a snowball
effect.
We are having a snowball effect on the troops, on their families, on
small businesses, and on employers. We know it, because employers and
families are beginning to escalate their use of the mechanism in the
Defense Department that allows you to ask for particular troops to come
home because of emergency or hardship. Businesses are using that as
well. We know it because families are organizing to bring the troops
home, for goodness' sake.
And we know one other thing: we had better not get up ever again and
declare that we can fight a war on two fronts. We now know we cannot
fight a war on two fronts without substantial aid from substantial
allies using a military force composed so disproportionately of Weekend
Warriors, of people in the Reserves, of people in the National Guard.
Nobody can fail to understand that now, particularly when the
commanders are calling for troops. They call them ``foreign troops,''
but what they mean is they need reinforcements.
We know they need reinforcements because of the horror stories we are
hearing, for example, of people coming home after a year of service and
being called back after a few weeks on the job. How long do you think
you will have a volunteer Army when you are
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treating troops this way? How long? Not long.
In particular, we ought to remember who the National Guard is. They
perform triple duty: homeland defense now in the age of domestic
terrorism, which is what Americans are truly afraid of; natural
disasters, like the hurricane that is bearing down upon us; and, of
course, the regular military duty that so many of them are engaged in
now. We had better hope and pray we do not need the National Guard at
home, because they simply are unavailable to us at the moment.
The administration changed the rules of the game once these young
people were signed up and in the field. Now they find that commanders
can decide when and if they will go home. They are getting extension
after extension of duty, and they are getting back-to-back service, all
of which they were promised would almost never happen.
Where does this spring from? From the go-it-alone attack on Iraq that
this administration did, against all of the advice of our allies,
indeed, of the whole world. The way in which we have handled Iraq has
already wrecked American foreign policy and its relations with its
allies.
Yes, I support the Congressional Black Caucus statement of
principles. I also believe it is time to do more than ask tough
questions. It is time to do more than talk about the troops, as if they
were some inanimate body. It is time to come to grips with our duty to
protect the troops, not only in the field, but here at home, against
policies that could wreck the volunteer forces on which we have become
so dependent in an age when we do not use the draft.
Mr. Speaker, I again thank the chairman for his leadership.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman and all of
the members of the Congressional Black Caucus for participating in this
discussion this evening.
{time} 1830
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I believe that history will be the judge,
and I think it will shine a very favorable light on the Congressional
Black Caucus for raising the questions that have been raised. These are
basic, fundamental questions.
It is interesting that the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia
(Ms. Norton) raised the issue of our troops. It just reminded me that
one of the first soldiers to die in the war just so happened to live a
few blocks from me, a young man who simply wanted to be the best that
he could be; and he joined the Marines, and the reason why he joined
the Marines was because he could not get scholarship money to go to
college. But he joined the Marines and gave the best that he had, and
he became one of the best helicopter specialists in the entire Marine
Corps.
So we must never forget the young people who are suffering in 120
degree-plus weather. We must never forget those who have given the
ultimate sacrifice, their lives, for this country. We must never forget
them, ever. We must never separate them from what is going on here
today, for they are the people that we care so much about and we love
so dearly.
At the same time, I think we owe them a certain level of support, the
highest level of support. We must do that. At the same time, we must
be, this country, that is the President, must answer crucial basic
questions about the taxes that are paid. I have often said, Mr.
Speaker, that one can get Republicans and Democrats to agree on one
thing, and that is for sure, and that is that the tax dollars of our
citizens must be spent in an effective and efficient manner. I do
believe that it is our duty. It is not only our duty; it is our
responsibility to ask the questions of how those dollars are spent. It
is the duty of every citizen to require of us in town hall meetings,
and when they meet us at the supermarket, to be able to ask us the
question of how are our dollars being spent.
And as we stand here today and as we look at this total $166 billion,
I promise my colleagues that I do not think that one of us can truly
say how they are being spent, because our President has not told us.
This Chamber should be packed with Members trying to get answers to
those very crucial questions.
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