[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 34 (Thursday, March 16, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H1121]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         AMERICA CAN DO BETTER

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, today and yesterday, we 
spent time on the floor of the House trying to construct a legislative 
initiative in the emergency supplemental to rebuild lives of Americans. 
We also attempted to respond to the rising crisis in Iraq. And I rise 
today to simply say that I know that America can do better.
  In the course of that debate, I heard a story of a woman whose 
husband is in Iraq, and she is looking to try to understand where the 
funding is going, or where are the monies that have been appropriated 
going, because her husband is writing back and telling her about 
contaminated water and lack of equipment.
  And then of course, I met a mother in my district who wondered why 
her son had to be redeployed for the third time to Iraq. I know America 
can do better. I am hoping as this emergency supplemental makes its way 
to the United States Senate that our colleagues, working with the 
administration, will understand that it is time now to redeploy our 
troops to bring them home in the honor and victory that they deserve, 
and then, of course, invest in the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast and not 
causing the stigmatizing of any of those who have suffered the 
devastation of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, and certainly 
provide the funding that the State of Texas needs once and for all, a 
State that has been impacted in a devastating way as we host those who 
are in need. It is time to do better for Americans.

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