[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 43 (Tuesday, March 13, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H2472-H2478]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           BLUE DOG COALITION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Tauscher). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Again, it 
is a great privilege to address this House in the Special Order for the 
Blue Dog Democratic Coalition, and we are delighted to do so.
  This is a very critical time in the juncture of our Nation. We are 
faced with a ballooning debt. We have an overextended military. We are 
in the midst of a very controversial war. It is paramount that Congress 
not just weigh in, but weigh in heavily as due our constitutional 
obligations.
  As we all know, the Constitution speaks very clearly on this matter. 
In Article I, Section 8, it speaks very clearly that it is exclusively 
Congress' responsibility when it comes to military action and foreign 
policy.

                              {time}  1615

  And that is this: it says that only Congress has the exclusive right 
to determine the purse strings. In other words, the exact verbiage in 
the Constitution is ``to raise and support the military.'' And then, 
secondly, to legislate. And quite naturally, it gave the executive 
branch comparative duties in a time of war.
  You know, Madam Speaker, in preparation for this time on the floor, I 
went back into the Constitution because I wanted to examine how this 
came about. And if you go back in the Constitution around 1787, if I am 
not mistaken, there was a great debate on how to handle the question of 
war and foreign policy facing our Nation. And it was handled by two of 
our greatest Founding Fathers, one was Alexander Hamilton and the other 
was James Madison.
  But you know, Madam Speaker, it was a peculiar circumstance that 
neither Hamilton nor Madison used their names. That struck me as very 
strange. Hamilton wrote under the name of Pacificus, and Madison wrote 
under the name of Helvidius. And I wondered about that. Why? But it was 
only on this profound question. Because it was so heavily debated, it 
was so heavily controversial that neither party wanted the public to 
know exactly who was saying what. But it was very important that they 
agree on the substance to leave this issue very flexible.
  But the one important point that they made was it would be the 
Congress, and expressly the House of Representatives of the Congress, 
that would have the final say so on the money end and on the 
legislative end, and that is what we are here to do today. For the 
American people are looking to this Congress to indeed weigh in. And 
Hamilton and Madison will smile kindly on us today.
  Leading off our discussion, Madam Speaker, is one of our 
distinguished Members, one of our cochairs for communications, one of 
my dear friends from the great State of Arkansas, Representative Mike 
Ross.
  Mr. ROSS. I thank the gentleman from Georgia for leading this hour-
long Special Order, this discussion on the debt, the deficit, but more 
importantly on accountability, in restoring common sense, 
accountability, fiscal discipline to our Nation's government.
  Madam Speaker, I don't have to tell you that we have got the largest 
debt ever in our Nation's history; $8,835,629,777,913 and increasing 
some $40 million every hour. Our Nation is spending a half a billion 
dollars a day simply paying interest on a debt we've already got, and 
that is before we increase it by $1 billion a day. Half a billion 
dollars a day going to pay interest on the national debt. That is a 
half a billion dollars a day we do not have to properly equip our 
troops, to support our troops, to support our veterans, those returning 
from Iraq and Afghanistan, to educate our children, to build roads. The 
list of what should be America's priorities is endless, and yet our 
Nation is spending half a billion dollars a day simply paying interest 
on a debt we've already got.
  It is time to restore fiscal discipline and common sense to our 
government, and one of the ways we do that is by requiring 
accountability in Iraq. That is why the Blue Dogs have written what has 
become known as H.R. 47, providing for Operation Iraqi Freedom Cost 
Accountability.
  Let me just say this, that 9/11, September 11, 2001, is a day that I 
will never forget. From my office window in the Cannon House Office 
Building I could see the smoke rise from the Pentagon. A few hours 
later, after being evacuated, I would learn that a young Navy petty 
officer, Nehamon Lyons, IV, from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, was among those 
killed at the Pentagon on that dreadful day.
  In the months that followed, I voted to give the President the 
authority to go to Afghanistan to hunt down Osama bin Laden. Remember 
him? To bring him to justice and to put an end to the Taliban, to put 
an end to terrorism. And then on September 26, 2002, I was called to 
the White House. I sat in the Cabinet Room, took notes, I still have

[[Page H2473]]

them, where the President and Andy Card and Condoleezza Rice and about 
20 Members of Congress present proceeded to tell us that Saddam Hussein 
had weapons of mass destruction, that Saddam Hussein trains terrorists 
on weapons of mass destruction, and that if military force is used, in 
the President's word, it will be, quoting now, ``swift.'' September 26, 
2002.
  Fast forward to March 13, 2007. More than 3,000 brave men and women 
in uniform have died, have sacrificed with their lives in Iraq. 
Thousands more injured in ways that will forever change their lives. As 
long as we have men and women in uniform in harm's way, I am going to 
support them; members of the Blue Dog Coalition are going to support 
them.
  This war has affected all of us. My brother-in-law is presently 
stationed in the United States Air Force in the Middle East. My first 
cousin was in Iraq when his wife gave birth to their first child. 
People that I grew up with and taught in Sunday school and duck hunt 
with have already served one tour through the Arkansas National Guard 
duty in Iraq and will likely be returning next year if the President 
gets his way with this so-called surge.
  Madam Speaker, I believe that the American people spoke on November 
7, and they told us they do not want more of the same. And simply 
adding 20,000 more troops to Iraq is, in my opinion, more of the same. 
The American people want a new direction in Iraq, not more of the same. 
In line with that, the American people want accountability for how 
their tax money is spent, not only in Iraq, but also here at home. And 
that is what we are trying to do with House Resolution 97.
  Government investigations and media reports have detailed waste, 
fraud, and possible war profiteering by some of the very contractors 
that are being paid billions of dollars by the United States for their 
services in Iraq. Most recently, a report issued January 30 by the 
Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction counts unsanitary 
conditions, potential health hazards, poor construction methods, and 
significant cost overruns among the examples of waste, fraud and abuse 
rampant in the government's funding of the Iraq war.
  House Resolution 97, which has been written and endorsed by the 43-
member strong fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, puts 
forth tangible commonsense proposals that ensure future transparency 
and accountability in the funding of Operation Iraqi Freedom. House 
Resolution 97 is an important first step toward making sure that more 
resources get to our troops in the field.
  House Resolution 97 focuses on four crucial points for demanding 
fiscal responsibility in Iraq: a call for transparency on how Iraq war 
funds are spent; the creation of a Truman Commission to investigate the 
awarding of contracts; a need to fund the Iraq war through the normal 
appropriations process and not through these so-called emergency 
supplementals; and, finally, using America's resources to approve Iraqi 
assumption of internal policing operations.
  Funding requests for the Iraq war should come through the normal 
appropriations process so that Congress and the people have a clear 
understanding about what is being spent on the war in Iraq. With House 
Resolution 97, the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition 
is calling for the Iraqi Government and its people to progress toward 
full responsibility for internally policing their country. Without such 
progress, it is wasteful to continue our investment in the lives, 
limbs, and taxpayer dollars in Iraq.
  We must honor those who have sacrificed in Iraq, our brave men and 
women in uniform, and the thousands more that have come home injured in 
ways that will forever change their lives. It is very important that we 
honor them, we support them and their sacrifices through demanding 
accountability from the Iraqi people. It is time to tell the Iraqi 
people it is time to step up and accept more responsibility for your 
own country. If you are going to continue to shoot at one another and 
to shoot at us, if public opinion poll after public opinion poll coming 
out of Iraq says that 70 percent of them don't want us there and 60 
percent of them think it is okay to kill a U.S. soldier there, then we 
should send a clear message to the Iraqi people that it is time for 
them to step up and assume responsibility. If they want us to continue 
to sacrifice our brave men and women in uniform and return many more 
thousands home injured, if they want us to continue to spend $12 
million an hour of our tax money in Iraq, some $2.5 billion a week, 
then it is time for the Iraqi people to accept more responsibility and 
more accountability for their actions.
  At the same time, Madam Speaker, it is very important that this 
administration understand that if we are going to support $12 million 
an hour, $2.5 billion a week of hard-earned taxpayer money going to 
Iraq, we want to know how it is being spent, we want it accounted for, 
and we want to know without a shadow of a doubt that it is going to 
support our brave men and women in uniform.
  I yield to the gentleman from Georgia.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. You hit upon a point here that the American 
people need to be aware of as to exactly why we need to pass our bill. 
I have before me what I would like to share with you, this report from 
today's Washington Post. It is a story by Ms. Ann Scott Tyson. It is a 
disheartening story, but it points right to the core of why we need to 
be doing something very urgent to bring accountability and the total 
lack of accountability that this administration has had. And this is 
about our veterans, those who are right off the battlefield.
  And, Mr. Ross, just like you, we both just came from Germany where we 
went into Landstuhl and we went into the military hospital near the 
Ramstein Air Base. And our hearts were broken as we saw 19- and 18- and 
20-year-old kids, these are young kids, folks, who are out there at the 
point of the spear, sacrificing their lives in the middle of a civil 
war. And when they come back to get treated, here is the report. She 
says: ``Thousands of soldiers wounded in the wars in Iraq and 
Afghanistan have overwhelmed the Army system for evaluating their 
eligibility for disability benefits, leading to a near total failure to 
complete such reviews in a timely manner.''
  And this is what the services Inspector General concluded in a report 
released yesterday. The report found this, Mr. Ross, it found that 
medical hold facilities lack critical staff, formalized training for 
personnel caring for wounded soldiers, with more than half of unit 
commanders reporting inadequate, our commanders on the ground are 
reporting inadequate for our soldiers. This is no way to treat our 
warriors.
  It also cited inadequate and unreliable databases for tracking the 
wounded, not even able to keep track of them. This is why we need our 
accountability act. This is why we need to have oversight and strong 
oversight on this administration. We are not talking about something 
here that doesn't exist. This is a serious problem that goes at the 
core and the soul of America, and that is our young men and women. 
Their lives are too precious, their blood is too precious to be 
sacrificed. Then when they do the sacrifice, they are not taken care 
of.
  Just listen to this: some facilities lack wheelchair access, which is 
directly in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, is going 
on right now under this administration.

                              {time}  1630

  That meant that wounded soldiers even had difficulty reaching the 
restroom. This is the same administration, my friends, this is no 
wonder why we have this. If you recall, they were sent into war without 
body armor. Our soldiers, 2 years ago, were going through dung heaps 
and land mines out in the desert trying to find metal to protect 
themselves.
  I said to you, and you and I both agreed when we were over there in 
Germany, we were going to do everything we could when we got back here 
to make sure we passed this bill and give the proper attention to our 
wounded and our veterans.
  You know, the Lord moves in strange and mysterious ways, and I am 
convinced that is why the exposure of that terrible situation at Walter 
Reed was made real at this very time to show the Congress and the 
American people we need this accountability law.
  Mr. ROSS. Let me just say there are those in this Congress that do 
not support sending $12 million an hour to

[[Page H2474]]

Iraq, then you are unpatriotic. I differ with that. I strongly differ 
with it. No one needs to question my patriotism, no one needs to 
question my support for our men and women in uniform.
  If you ask me, giving them more of the same is not showing support 
for our men and women in uniform. They need a new direction. They need 
a new direction in Iraq, one that will allow them to do their job and 
come back home to their families. The President proposing a surge of 
some 21,000 troops is not a new direction, it is more of the same.
  At the same time, Madam Speaker, let me tell you that the other thing 
that the American people want is they want responsibility. They want 
responsibility by the Iraqi government. They want them to buy into 
this.
  The other thing the American people want is accountability within our 
own government, which is clearly why we are advocating the passage of 
the Iraqi War Accountability Act, H.R. 97. Why is it needed? Because 
auditors in one region found that contract managers could not account 
for $97 million disbursed from the development fund for Iraq. Under its 
no-bid contract to rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure contract, 
Halliburton overcharged by over 600 percent for the delivery of fuel 
from Kuwait.
  An audit of programs designed to train guards designed to protect 
Iraq's oil and electrical infrastructure concluded that U.S. agencies 
could not provide reasonable assurance that $147 million expended under 
these programs was used for its intended purpose.
  In one case, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction 
found that a company which was awarded a security management contract 
worth hundreds of millions of dollars could provide no assurance that 
it was providing the best possible safety for government and 
reconstruction personnel as required by the contract, and could not 
even show that its employees authorized to carry weapons were trained 
to use those weapons.
  Finally, Halliburton tripled the cost of hand towels at taxpayer 
expense by insisting on having its own embroidered logo on each towel. 
You can't make this stuff up. Halliburton employees dumped 50,000 
pounds of nails in the desert because they ordered the wrong size all 
at taxpayers' expense. This is not supporting our troops.
  We want to fund our troops. We want to support our troops, and the 
way to do that is by requiring more accountability by this 
administration and the Pentagon. Quite frankly, for the last 6 years, 
Congress has not fulfilled its constitutionally given duty of providing 
oversight. It has been a rubber stamp for whatever this administration 
wants.
  Those days are over, the new Congress has arrived, and we are going 
to begin to provide that oversight and accountability and demand 
responsibility, not only from this administration, but from the Iraqis 
through the passage of H.R. 97.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. You mentioned Halliburton, and there is no 
greater poster child for the abuse, for the very need for this 
legislation. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted. The 
reports have been there, in the news. They have covered it left and 
right, and, meanwhile, our soldiers don't even have wheelchair access.
  This administration has a day of atonement on this, and history is 
not going to smile kindly on the abuse that was heaped upon our 
military and the strain and the drain that it is causing. You mentioned 
earlier, Mr. Ross, about Halliburton, and in just yesterday's news 
Halliburton's reward to us for all of the billions of dollars that they 
have gotten in taxpayers' money was to move their headquarters from the 
United States over into Dubai in the Middle East so that they could get 
out from under paying certain levels of taxes in this country.
  No wonder the American people are crying out. No wonder the American 
people went to the polls in November and declared in a loud voice, 
enough of this, we want change, and they put Democrats in charge of 
this Congress. They, indeed, as I said earlier in my remarks, wanted 
Alexander Hamilton and James Madison to smile kindly, because finally 
we are standing up and performing the constitutional duties of 
oversight, of legislation and controlling the purse that they fought 
hard to put into the Constitution over two centuries ago.
  Now I would like to yield time to my distinguished friend from Ohio, 
from Steubenville, Ohio, the home of one of my most favorite singers, 
Dean Martin, and I would like to present Representative Charlie Wilson.
  Mr. WILSON of Ohio. I thank the gentleman from Georgia. I appreciate 
this opportunity.
  Madam Speaker, when we sent cash over to Iraq on a pallet with no 
accountability, no understanding, and those hundreds of millions of 
dollars just disappeared into the desert air, we know that we need 
accountability. We need accountability in this war for the financial 
money that we have sent there. We also need accountability for the body 
armor and the proper rest for our soldiers, the proper training for our 
soldiers. We need to be able to show that we are showing 
accountability.
  I am so proud to be a new Member of this Congress that is willing to 
stand up for our soldiers and for the right things to do for America. 
When more than $400 billion have been poured into Iraq with little 
oversight on how that money is spent, we have to ask ourselves, we 
can't wait any longer for the accountability that needs to be done.
  I am proud to be a member of the Blue Dog Coalition to be able to 
stand up and say what the national debt is. If we could see the money 
that we spend every month, and month after month and year after year on 
the interest debt of our Nation, almost $9 trillion now, it is just 
hard to believe that we can continue down this lane of not making the 
proper decisions and not having accountability.
  House Resolution 97 goes straight to the heart of the matter. It sets 
up the issue and the framework of how we are going to consider having 
the proper accountability so that we can know where we are going, where 
the money is going. These are hard-earned tax dollars, and many of 
these dollars are being spent that are not being spent on education and 
are not being spent on health care for our seniors.
  These dollars are being funneled into foreign countries that were 
borrowing money to help pay this debt. It is not the right direction.
  House Resolution 97 does call for regular reports to the Congress 
that outline how military and reconstruction funds are spent from now 
on. It also says the accounts for the terms and contracts that are 
awarded by our government, how long are the contracts? What is the 
accountability of them? Are they all no-bid contracts, and, if so, how 
long are they in place for?
  We need to have that kind of accountability, and House Resolution 97 
does that. It details how future taxpayer money will be spent. That is 
the kind of accountability that we need. The costs just keep climbing 
in Iraq, and we must get a true handle to know where these costs are.
  The American taxpayer deserves to know the truth. They deserve to 
know what is going on, and this is what House Resolution 97 does. It 
shines the light of day on the process that is going on in Iraq. I am 
hopeful, if we can lean forward and move forward on this legislation, 
we will be able to have accountability that people will feel that we 
are doing the right things.
  Our soldiers will know that they are having the right kind of 
support, and we, as Members of Congress, are providing the service and 
the change in direction to get America back on the right track.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Will the gentleman yield for one moment, and 
don't you agree, there is such a thirst on the part of the American 
people for their confidence to be restored in this process, that was 
what was evident in last fall's election, that nobody is saying cut and 
run, nobody is saying that you will be unpatriotic if you speak to 
this. They want us to speak to this. They want us to do our job, and I 
think that is what you were pointing out in your remarks.
  One of the two points I wanted to mention too that you alluded to in 
our House Resolution 97, that I would like for you to be able to expand 
upon, and that is that the American people need to know that in this 
bill we will require the inspector generals of the Defense Department, 
of the Pentagon, to come before this Congress quarterly, not once a 
year, every 90 days, quarterly, to make reports on how the money is 
being spent.
  Never again, never again, will our veterans be suffering in the 
condition

[[Page H2475]]

that our veterans are suffering now. The American people are appalled 
at that. They want some transparency. They want some accountability.
  You talked about earlier, we talked about Halliburton. We talked 
about the abuse, the contracting. In this bill, we have made sure that 
the Inspector General for the Iraqi Reconstruction Program comes before 
this Congress and gives quarterly reports on how that money is being 
spent, no more waste, no more fraud, no more war profiteering. The 
shame of the neglect of oversight is going to be rectified with this 
bill.
  I yield back to the gentleman.
  Mr. WILSON of Ohio. Thank you to the gentleman from Georgia. You 
could not be more right, and it is evident in what we have seen in the 
Walter Reed Hospital situation we have just seen recently. The 
conditions are deplorable, to think that our men and women and our 
soldiers go and put their life on the line, and just thousands and 
thousands have been injured and they have returned to substandard 
medical care, poor conditions and sometimes horror stories of people 
waiting 18 hours to be seen by a doctor.
  This type of lack of accountability just cannot continue, and I am 
proud to be a Member of this Congress and this Democratic Caucus that 
are going to move forward toward doing the right thing for our 
soldiers, supporting them with the money that they need and moving 
forward to bring common sense to this entire situation.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Thank you very much, Congressman Wilson. Your 
comments and your participation is so meaningful in helping us bring 
some light to this issue, especially in extrapolating and explaining to 
the American people the legislation that we are putting forward. I look 
forward to you staying with us as we perhaps get into a few more 
conversations on this issue.
  But we are also joined with another Member, a distinguished member of 
our Blue Dog Coalition and a very good friend and who is a very, very 
significant voice in this Congress in bringing some truth and some 
transparency so that we can improve the position of our military and 
make sure that we are responsive to the American people, and that is 
Mr. John Salazar from Colorado, a very distinguished Member and a hard-
working member of the Blue Dog Coalition and a great friend.
  Madam Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from Colorado as much time 
as he may need.
  Mr. SALAZAR. I thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott).
  Madam Speaker, I am proud to join my colleagues of the Blue Dog 
Coalition to demand more fiscal accountability in Iraq. You know, the 
Blue Dogs have a plan for fiscal accountability in Iraq. Our plan calls 
for four things, it calls for transparency on how the war funds are 
being spent.
  Two, it creates an commission to investigate the awarding of 
contracts.
  Three, it stops the use of supplemental supplementals to fund this 
war. Do you know that this is the first administration that has 
continually been using supplementals to fund a war? That is strange.
  Number four, it uses American resources to improve Iraq's ability to 
police themselves.
  Mr. Scott, I have been calling, on and on again, that it is important 
for us to turn the responsibilities over to the Iraqi people, let them 
be responsible for their own futures. Why should we be putting our 
soldiers lives on the line when over 60 percent of the Iraqis now claim 
that it is okay to shoot an American soldier?
  But this is about accountability. This is about spending the American 
taxpayers' funds wisely. This is about the board of directors that 
America has selected and appointed to the U.S. Congress to do oversight 
on the taxpayers' funds that are being utilized to fund this war.
  While the Blue Dog coalition legislation addresses the glaring lack 
of oversight and accountability in Iraq, we make sure that taxpayer 
dollars are accounted for. Government reports have documented waste, 
fraud and abuse in Iraq, time and time again.

                              {time}  1645

  I believe, Madam Speaker, that it is time now to stop that waste. 
Congressional oversight is desperately needed. The administration must 
be held accountable for how these reconstruction funds are being used.
  And speaking about reconstruction funds, Mr. Scott, you mentioned 
just briefly about Halliburton. Well, I find it kind of strange that, 
you know, when they are needed most to help pay taxes so that we can 
actually fund this war, all of a sudden they decide to pull up stakes 
and move because they say their tax rates are too high. Well, to me, 
Mr. Scott, that is not being patriotic.
  This Blue Dog bill is tangible. It is a commonsense proposal that 
ensures transparency and accountability. We have already spent $437 
billion in Iraq, according to the Congressional Research Service. We 
will spend another $100 billion in Iraq in 2007 alone. I think that we 
must start showing improvement in Iraq, and accountability leads 
directly to success.
  You brought up a real point. It is almost as if someone reaches into 
your chest and jerks out your heart. I make regularly scheduled visits 
out to Walter Reed to visit our returning troops, and I meet with them 
and talk to them.
  Their message is quite simple. They are there to do their job. They 
are proud to be Americans. They are proud patriotic citizens and proud 
to have served their country. And they tell me, do not let our efforts 
go in vain.
  Well, I can assure you, Mr. Scott, that the Blue Dogs are committed 
to making sure that we stand by them and make sure that they have the 
equipment they need by holding this administration accountable.
  It is amazing when you see our soldiers returning without arms and 
without legs and yet so strong and patriotic and talking about how 
proud they are to be Americans.
  Well, Mr. Scott, it is time for the U.S. Congress to also say that 
they are patriotic and that they are proud Americans, and that they 
will stand by their soldiers. I think that Iraq must be progressing 
toward full responsibility for policing their own country. I think 
without progress it is a waste to continue U.S. investment in troops 
and financial resources. We all support our troops. We will do 
everything in our power to get them the equipment they need.
  I have been in Iraq twice. The first time I was there, soldiers were 
complaining because they were out in the scrap piles looking for metal 
to build shields under the Humvees. And in many cases, those became the 
very instruments that cost their lives.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Would the gentleman yield just for one point 
because I think it is very important. You bring up this important point 
that we need to remind the people of America that when that came to our 
attention, it was Democrats, Democrats who provided the leadership with 
the amendment to put into the spending bill money for the body armor; 
that we could have known about the shortage if there was oversight, if 
that Congress, the Republican Congress, would not just automatically 
just bend over and rubber stamp. That is why this bill is so important, 
that we don't have that bypassing with this special emergency 
supplemental way of funding a war.
  And I go back to the Constitution, the Founding Fathers, and that is 
why they gave it to us because the House of Representatives is the 
House that is closest to the people. We were more sensitive, just as 
you and I are now, to do everything we can to correct this matter. And 
we also put in there money to reimburse their parents. So many of our 
soldiers were writing home to mama and to daddy asking them for money 
for body armor. The shame of this country. Never again will that 
happen. And that is why we need this bill.
  I yield back to the gentleman.
  Mr. SALAZAR. I want to thank the gentleman. And he made some very 
important points. It is our responsibility here in Congress to look out 
for our troops and our soldiers. But we cannot continue writing these 
blank checks, Madam Speaker. We have been writing blank checks for the 
last several years because over the last 6 years there hasn't been any 
oversight. There has not been any accountability.
  And I can assure you that since January, over the last 2 months, 
there has been oversight hearings on several issues in regard to the 
military readiness, in regard to where some of this funding is going.

[[Page H2476]]

  And so I am very proud to be a Member of the Blue Dog Coalition that 
brings forward this important bill. I think that until our last troop 
has returned home that the American people deserve to know how their 
money is being spent. Accountability is not only patriotic, but it 
often determines success from failure.
  The Blue Dog bill gives an opportunity to regain oversight and 
responsibility. This is the responsibility we have, to all our men and 
women in uniform, to their parents, to the American taxpayer who is 
footing the bill.
  Madam Speaker, today I want to thank you. I want to thank Mr. Scott 
for his leadership, and I want to thank you for giving me the time to 
be able to speak out on behalf of the American taxpayer, the American 
people and our soldiers in uniform.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Well, thank you, Mr. Salazar. You have done 
extraordinarily well in presenting the very crucible of our bill, which 
is bringing the accountability, bringing the needed transparency. No 
more, no place is it needed more so than in the care of our wounded 
soldiers.
  And so much has fallen through the cracks. I read this report. I just 
want to, I will go back to it for a moment, Mr. Salazar, because it 
says this. It says that more than 25,000 service members have been 
wounded in the two wars, and nearly half seriously enough that they can 
not return to duty within 72 hours. The delays in the Army's rating of 
disability have been a source of deep frustration for many, with 
wounded soldiers waiting hours to be moved on, days, and sometimes 
months to be moved on with their lives outside the military. Many in 
the National Guard themselves have lost their jobs. We have yet to even 
come to the depths of the pain that our soldiers are faced with as a 
result of this.

  So when the President says send 21,000 more in, send these in, he 
never again, this President will never again have to go before the 
voters. But you do and I do. And when we go back before them, they will 
know that we have done everything in our power to bring a right look on 
a wrong situation, and to correct this terrible, terrible imbalance for 
our veterans.
  And so I thank you for your participation, and I thank you for 
highlighting that great need. I appreciate your passion for this. We 
are very, very, pleased for your presentation.
  Madam Speaker, before I bring in another person, I want to make a 
point, because I think it is very important that we take a moment to 
address what the leadership of the Democratic Party in this House of 
Representatives is really talking about in our legislation. We had, 
prior to this, a truth squad, and you have people who are trying to 
make it this or make it that.
  We realize, as Democrats, that we have an obligation to fulfill the 
desires and the wishes of the American people for a change in direction 
in Iraq, among other places, but definitely in Iraq. And it is not an 
easy thing to do. But it is, as I pointed out earlier, in our exclusive 
power to legislate and to appropriate and to provide the oversight. 
That is critical. And this is what we are proposing in our troop 
readiness, veterans, health, and Iraq accountability act. This is what 
the talk is about.
  Let me just, point by point, go through the points so we understand. 
As the war in Iraq enters its fifth year, with no end in sight, that is 
fundamentally the most worrisome thing on the minds of the American 
people. This has gone on longer than World War II. There has never been 
the clear mission, beyond go and find if they have got weapons of mass 
destruction. When the soldiers went and they determined that they 
didn't, that should have ended it. There was no authorization to go in 
and remove a regime. There were no Iraqis that marched on the Capitol 
in Washington and said bring us a democracy. Democracy is hard. It 
requires people to want it in their gut. We are dealing with a society 
and a region in the Middle East where these civil wars have been going 
on, in some shape or form, since Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Abraham and 
Sarah and Hagar, Ishmael, Esau, the prophet Mohammed and his son-in-
law, which brought about the split of the Sunnis and the Shias. 
Thousands of years, that is what this is.
  Our children have no business losing their lives in this war. The 
President has asked that money continue to be provided with no strings 
attached. The American people want some strings attached. The reason is 
because as we just got through doing, with what is happening at Walter 
Reed, with what is happening to our veterans, with the fact of no body 
armor. We are not going without being rested and properly equipped, 
well after the American people have called for a new direction. That 
set the stage for what we are going to offer in this bill.
  And I want to come back to that, and I want to pause for a moment 
because we do have another one of our distinguished Members with us, 
and he has been working very hard as a member of the Blue Dogs and has 
also been working very hard in this area of bringing transparency and 
accountability to the situation in Iraq and responding to the needs of 
the American people. And I want to recognize for as much time as he may 
need, Congressman Mahoney of Florida.
  Mr. MAHONEY of Florida. I thank my friend, the distinguished 
gentleman, for yielding time to me this afternoon.
  Madam Speaker, I rise today on behalf of Florida's 16th Congressional 
District in support of House Resolution 97, providing cost 
accountability for the Iraq war.
  If we take a look at what has happened over these past 5 years, 
America has rid Iraq of a brutal dictator. America has given the Iraqi 
people a chance to create their own democracy, and we have invested 
over $400 billion and more than 3,000 American lives in securing their 
country.
  Madam Speaker, it is time for the Iraqis to step up and to take 
control of their destiny and their own security. And it is imperative 
that any future American financial expenditures in the Iraq war be 
subject to accountability and transparency.
  An estimated $9 billion of Iraqi reconstruction funds are missing. 
According to a January 2005 report by the Office of the Special 
Inspector General of Iraq Reconstruction, these $9 billion have gone 
missing because of inefficiencies and bad management.

                              {time}  1700

  For the past 4 years, Congress has not exercised the oversight and 
accountability necessary to ensure that our money is being used 
effectively to support our troops to achieve our objectives in Iraq. We 
have paid billions of dollars to private contractors for work in Iraq; 
at the same time, the reports have uncovered waste, fraud, abuse, and 
even possible war profiteering by some of these contractors.
  In a war already lacking manpower, resources, and international 
support needed to maximize our chance of success, it is criminal that 
billions of dollars are unaccounted for. Congressional oversight is 
needed to make sure that our money is used to support our troops, not 
lost to profiteering and fraud.
  House Resolution 97 would require that future Iraq spending is marked 
by transparency and accountability, instead of systemic waste, fraud, 
and abuse. The resolution calls for the creation of a Truman Commission 
to investigate how contracts are awarded, increases transparency so we 
know how Iraq war funds are spent, demands that fiscal requests for 
fiscal year 2008 and later go through the normal appropriations process 
instead of emergency supplementals, and calls for resources to be used 
to improve Iraqi assumption of policing operations.
  Madam Speaker, these criteria are long overdue. I encourage my 
colleagues to support House Resolution 97 to ensure that transparency 
and accountability are the hallmarks of any future funding of the Iraq 
war.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. I thank Congressman Mahoney. You brought some 
excellent points up about the need for us to make sure that this 
funding goes through the normal appropriations process. It might be 
useful for us to just share with our American people, when we say the 
normal, the regular appropriations process, is that this President has 
up to this point funded this war, which has lasted now longer than 
World War II, on emergency supplementals. And what that does is it 
foregoes oversight, it doesn't allow Congress to do the job that it has 
done. And this is why I believe in strong

[[Page H2477]]

measure this Congress has changed hands. The American people want to 
see us do our job and bring about the transparency. And that is what is 
involved in both House Resolution 97 as well as in our leadership bill 
on the supplemental, the full supplemental bill that we are working on 
as well. And I certainly thank the gentleman.
  Mr. MAHONEY of Florida. I appreciate the gentleman yielding time. I 
couldn't agree more. And one of the things that the American people are 
starting to see is that this Democratic led Congress is about doing the 
people's business. November 7 was a mandate on fiscal responsibility 
reform. As a freshman Congressman, I ran on fiscal reform and 
responsibility, and I can tell you that this is a good step, another 
step, a necessary step to getting accountability back into this 
government. Thank you very much.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. We are very pleased to have you, and we 
certainly thank you for bringing those points and for adding to the 
discussion.
  As I stated before, I wanted to just share as we go through this, as 
we talk about House Resolution 97 and our bill on the supplemental, it 
is important to understand so that we are not caught up in all of this 
rhetoric and misinformation about what the Democrats are doing, it is 
very important to understand our shared principles in this legislation 
and fully funding our national defense. This bill fully funds and 
supports our troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and we are upholding 
these points, requiring the President to simply honor the standards the 
Department of Defense has set for troop readiness, for training, for 
equipment. We have just seen that many of our troops have gone into 
harm's way without the body equipment that they need. What is wrong 
with making sure that our troops are protected, that they have the body 
armor? That is what the Democratic plan does. What is wrong with making 
sure that they are rested and that they are ready? That is what the 
Democratic plan does. We want to send our young men into harm's way? 
Make sure they are protected, make sure they are ready and that they 
are rested, and to make sure that they have been trained. And on each 
one of those counts, Madam Speaker, this administration has fallen 
short, and the American people know it, and that is the central core of 
the bill.
  Secondly, we have got to hold the Iraqi government to the same 
standards for progress that the President outlined in announcing the 
escalation. The President made certain standards. All we are doing is 
reaffirming these in the legislation so that we have those standards. 
And then, providing urgently needed support to address the military 
medical care crisis for our veterans at Walter Reed and other 
hospitals. And that is why the American people are out in front of us 
and support wholeheartedly what the Democratic proposal is.
  Let me continue, if I may, on what it is that we are doing so the 
American people can be clear.
  On those three points, just simply requiring the President to honor 
the standards that the Defense Department sets for their military to be 
ready, that they have rest, that they have equipment. What can be more 
plain and commonsense than that? And then holding the Iraqis to the 
same standards that he put forward in support of the escalation he 
asked for. And then, thirdly, to provide the urgently needed support to 
address the military medical care and crisis at Walter Reed and other 
hospitals that I just got through alluding to and the excellent report 
in the Washington Post today.
  The need for accountability on Iraq is clear. Holding the President 
to his own military readiness policies and performance standards is 
certainly a good way to start. The alternative is only the President's 
open-ended commitment in this war, and that is one thing we cannot 
continue. Our children's lives are too precious, our tax dollars are 
too precious to continue to be pouring in an open-ended policy. We have 
got to find a way to bring this matter to conclusion, not in any kind 
of way of, as the opponents would say, my friends on the other side of 
the aisle, cut and run. That is all they can say. We want to be there 
until victory.
  Well, what is victory? What is victory if it is not what we set out 
what we were to do in the very beginning, finds weapons of mass 
destruction, which we did, and they are no longer there? Iraq did not 
attack this country. This country was attacked by al Qaeda. And al 
Qaeda is in Afghanistan on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Osama bin 
Ladin is there on the Pakistan side. I was there. I went over to 
Pakistan, I went over to Afghanistan. I talked with President Karzai. 
They know where they are. What are we doing in Iraq, and why did we go?
  The Congress is working hard to achieve consensus around these shared 
principles. And let me just say, politics is no easy business. Making 
laws is sort of making sausage: It is not the prettiest thing in the 
world. But it is our system. It is give and it is take. It is trying to 
get 218 votes. It is pulling coalitions together. And that is why you 
see legislation with the variety of different components in it. But 
there are some standards here, and we hope that the President will join 
us in the effort to protect our troops in the field, require 
accountability from the Iraqi government, and fix the care crisis for 
our wounded soldiers and our veterans. And, finally, understand that he 
isn't the only one on the ball field. We all have a role to play. The 
Founding Fathers made our position clear, and that clarity is speaking 
on this floor today.

  And now I want to recognize another one of the distinguished Members 
from New Hampshire (Ms. Porter) who is doing just a wonderful job, and 
we thank you for coming on the floor and being a part of our debate and 
discussion.
  I yield as much time as she may need to Ms. Porter from New 
Hampshire.
  Ms. SHEA-PORTER. I thank the gentleman, and Madam Speaker.
  I just came out of an Armed Services hearing where we were 
discussing, once again, readiness, and we had the Army there telling us 
the great strains on their budget, the strains on their equipment, and, 
most importantly, the strains on their soldiers. And so I am standing 
here today in support of our soldiers, in support of our military, in 
support of our ability to respond to any crisis in the world. And Iraq 
is not the place that we need to put our soldiers and all of our 
resources.
  Last weekend, I went to Iraq to look for myself what was going on. I 
saw a lot of contractors taking quite a bit of money, serving soldiers 
in jobs that soldiers could have done themselves. I saw the strains on 
the soldiers. I saw National Guard troops that were in for a third 
deployment. And I saw the difficulty that the Iraqis were experiencing. 
In flying over Baghdad, I saw a very sad city.
  Now, what I would like to see happen is for us to take the money that 
we are pouring into Iraq and put it into Afghanistan where the original 
trouble started, where we actually had the terrorist training camps, 
where we still need to finish the business that we started in 2001. But 
we need money to do that, we need resources to do that. They have been 
diverted and put into Iraq.
  There were no Iraqis on the planes that day on 9/11. We went into 
Iraq because we picked the wrong war, the wrong people, and we should 
have stayed in Afghanistan and supported the effort there. So I urge my 
colleagues and I urge the House to do the right thing by our soldiers 
and by the Iraqis as well, and to make sure that we tend to where the 
real problems are in Pakistan and also in Afghanistan.
  I also would like to see some money in homeland security. The first 
thing we need to do is support our own borders. We need to protect our 
borders. And when you look at the money that we have put in homeland 
security, it is miniscule. We are still not checking all of the cargo 
that comes into the belly of a plane, we are not checking the cargo 
that comes from overseas. They say that we don't have the equipment. We 
certainly could have the equipment. Hong Kong checks every single 
container that comes from abroad. And that is the great worry, that a 
dirty bomb could come from abroad in a container. We need to use the 
money wisely. Of course we need defense. We have to invest in our 
country. But we need to take those dollars and make sure that we are 
protecting our borders first and foremost, and then also working in 
Afghanistan; and, making sure that we have enough money and enough 
resources and enough troops to respond to anywhere else in the world 
that trouble could brew. Thank you.

[[Page H2478]]

  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Well stated. Eloquent and very well stated. And 
you touched on so many important issues. The strain on our military; 
and the young lady was so poignant in that. And American people need to 
understand that, how much more can our military take? Every person, 
even when the issue was put forward when General Casey and General 
Abizaid came over here, our Armed Services Committee, I think you may 
have been on that committee, asked them: Do you need more troops? No, 
we don't need any more troops. That was just in November. And something 
changed just in about 30 or 50 days, for all of a sudden now it came.
  And I want to thank the young lady for your statement. It was very 
well stated and hit all of the points right on the head in terms of the 
direction we need to go. And the American people are definitely in step 
with us.
  Madam Speaker, I thank you for the time. Please remember this is our 
Blue Dog hour, and we appreciate the opportunity to talk.

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