[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 146 (Friday, October 17, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H9680-H9681]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




TROOP/VETERANS AMENDMENTS BLOCKED BY HOUSE LEADERSHIP FOR CONSIDERATION 
                       OR DEFEATED ON HOUSE FLOOR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, well, that was a quite a week's work for 
the United States Congress. We just managed to add $87 billion to the 
debt of the United States of America if this legislation stands in 
conference with the Senate. $87 billion will be borrowed to continue 
the conflict in Iraq and to build a vibrant new economy for Iraq, 
roads, bridges, highways, telephone systems, 9/11 ports, a lot of 
things that we could use here in the United States, investment that if 
it was made in the United States, would put more than a million people 
to work.
  But in the wisdom of the Republican majority in the House, this will 
be money that will be borrowed and spent in Iraq. They would not allow 
us to convert it to loans. One gentleman from Indiana famously stood up 
with an amendment to convert it to loans last night. He knew his 
amendment was not going to be made in order. He got an hour to debate 
it and then went away like a sheep when his amendment was not allowed, 
did not even challenge the ruling of the Chair, did not even try to get 
a vote. And then when he was offered a chance to vote on a democratic 
amendment to turn it into a loan because they have $7 trillion of oil 
reserves, he voted no.
  People like that are going to have to explain that to their 
constituents. How is it more important that the working people of 
America assume billions of dollars of debt, that people for three 
generations are going to repay over the next 30 years for the people of 
Iraq so they may prosper, so they may better exploit their $7 trillion 
of oil reserves, and we cannot ask them to contribute to that process. 
It is not about war damage. It is about the damage done to their 
economy by a brutal dictator.
  Here are a few things that were not in the bill. Even though we are 
borrowing $87 billion, it did not include $4.6 billion transferred from 
rebuilding Iraq to quality-of-life enhancements for our troops so they 
can have potable water, health and dental screening, postdeployment 
health care coverage for the Guard and Reserve, prepaid phone cards, 
transportation home on leave, they would not allow that. It was more 
important to borrow the money and spend it on Iraq.
  An amendment to increase imminent-danger pay for the troops, the 
American men and women serving over there. And family separation 
allowance, prepaid phone cards, and $25 million in loans to Reservists 
who own small businesses disrupted by this deployment. That was not in 
the bill because it was more important to borrow and spend the money to 
rebuild Iraq and to benefit the Iraqi people.
  An amendment to add $1.8 billion for veterans health care was not 
part of this bill. An amendment to add $1.8 billion, another, a second 
one, by reducing the Iraqi construction account for veterans health 
care was not allowed.
  I guess we know where the parties stand. We hear a lot about the 
Republicans are with the troops. They may be good at wrapping 
themselves in the flag, but when it comes to putting the money and 
their vote where the troops are, they are not there. They are AWOL. And 
they were AWOL on these amendments. They were AWOL on the amendment to 
add the Armed Forces Tax Fairness Act to the bill. It would not have 
taken any money away from the Iraqi people, but would have given 
benefits to the people in the Armed Forces here.
  An amendment to provide additional compensation to Guard and Reserve 
members, an amendment to provide Guard and Reserve members medical and 
dental screening upon being called to active duty, tricare coverage to 
certain Reserve members. An amendment to increase the basic pay of 
Reservists by $1,000 a month.
  An amendment, this one was quite an amendment, it was a tie vote, so 
that means that any person who voted against it on that side of the 
aisle, and 99 percent of them did, to give a $1,500 bonus to those 
serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, and it would have come out of the 
foreign aid portion, the build-Iraq portion of this budget.
  So the Republican majority decided it was more important to give more 
money to a country with $7 trillion of oil reserves than it was to give 
a $1,500 bonus. I guess they have not talked to their Reservists who 
have been called up. I have. Many of them have taken huge cuts in pay. 
They are putting their family businesses at risk, if they have family 
businesses. Yeah, they may get their jobs back when they return, but 
they are never going to make up for that income.
  This would have just been a fraction of what many of them lost. But, 
no, they could not do that. It was more important to give $20 billion 
to the Iraqi people to build their infrastructure, their roads, their 
bridges, their health care, their education system, their sewer, their 
water systems, things that we could use across America.

[[Page H9681]]

  An amendment to reimburse any servicemember or any family who 
purchases protective body armor. We voted $79 billion last April, we 
borrowed, the House of Representatives, the Senate, the President, 
borrowed $79 billion for this war last April, and it did not include 
the body armor. Well, the money was there, yes. But Rumsfeld did not 
order it because he said, oh, the troops are not going to be there long 
enough to need it, and people are going to greet them by waving little 
tiny American flags. So he just did not order the body armor. It is not 
that they did not have the money. They did not order it. They did not 
order the armored Humvees for our troops.
  What they have not done is incredible, but what they have done is 
even worse. They have indebted the people of the United States of 
America for $87 billion, most of it to benefit the residents of another 
nation and not here in America.

                          ____________________