[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 70 (Tuesday, May 1, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H4271-H4277]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Cohen). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Madam Speaker, it is an honor to come before the
House once again, especially this evening.
As you know, the 30-Something Working Group, we come to the floor to
bring forth the truth on behalf of the American people, not just
Independents or not just Democrats, not just Republicans, but on behalf
of the American people.
I am so glad to be joined once again by my good friend from Niles,
Ohio, Mr. Tim Ryan, and I am always excited about being on the floor
with him. I am excited by the fact that, Mr. Speaker, today that there
was a conference report signed to support our men and women that are in
harm's way in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in areas where they are staging to
move into theater, one that brings about the equipment and support,
going above and beyond what the President called for, but it also had
benchmarks to bring about the kind of standards that the American
people are crying out for.
It happened today at 3 p.m., and I am very proud of not only the
Speaker but Majority Leader Harry Reid over in the Senate, Senator
Reid. I think it is also important for us to realize that in both
chambers it passed by a bipartisan vote. I think it is also important
to note that as soon as we were able to get that conference report
signed, that the President, one of his first actions was to announce
officially his veto of that legislation, saying tomorrow that Democrats
and Republicans will come together at the White House to discuss where
we can compromise.
Let me just say this before I yield to Mr. Ryan. I understand that
there is a discussion that is going on about who is right and who is
wrong, but I think it is very, very important to understand especially
on the date that Mr. Ryan is going to address in a minute, some 4 years
ago, where there was a great announcement of accomplishment and now to
continue to move on under that light of saying trust me, that
everything is going to be okay, I think that those days are over. I am
not saying they are over. The American people are saying they are over.
One time here on the floor, Mr. Ryan went down a litany of things,
and actually I was checking out some of your work on YouTube recently,
and it had the one when you came and you said, forgive me for
questioning what the President says or what the Republican majority at
that time had to say about the fact of liberators and paying for the
war and on and on and on.
It continues, but the American people are now saying, Mr. Speaker,
that we understand this Commander in Chief but we need the Congress to
stand up and be the Congress, asking for accountability.
So, with that, I know that we have a number of things to talk about
here this evening, and we also have some fresh quotes from former brass
because, of course, if you are enlisted or you are inside, you cannot
speak truth to power or speak your mind. This information has just been
released not only publicly but to those of us here in Congress. We want
to share that with the Members.
Also, I want to add that the death toll in Iraq is 3,351; wounded in
action, returned to duty is up 13,875; and wounded in action and not
returning to duty is 11,215. That is the latest at 10:00 a.m. today. As
you know, when we come to the floor, we give that report of that
information because I think the Members need to understand that this is
not a political issue. This is a serious issue that is facing the
country and also facing the men and women in uniform and their
families.
So I do know that the American people are, and a super majority of
them are, 100 percent behind accountability and also oversight. I think
it is important that we have that, and the President is asking for a
blank check.
The thing that I am disappointed about is that the President had an
opportunity to share something great with the country about a dialogue,
but he decided to misrepresent what is in the legislation. I think that
as we continue to talk about this tonight, that we continue to share
with the Members, because every time we take a vote, the vote gets
greater on behalf of accountability. I am hoping that we can meter up
enough on both sides of the aisle to make sure that we hang in there
with the men and women in harm's way and those that may be placed in
harm's way and not wince to the President on some sort of floating
politics that is going on right now.
I hope they have a true dialogue. I am not about the political part
of this. I am about the action part of this and making sure that our
men and women have what they need.
Mr. Speaker, we have done what we said we would do: make sure that
they are funded; make sure that they have the equipment that they need;
make sure that the men and women that went over into harm's way, that
the Department of Defense regulation as it relates to the downtime that
they are supposed to have with their families,
[[Page H4272]]
that they will have it and that if the Department of Defense was going
to exit from that, then there has to be a reason why they were going to
exit, for not holding their end of the deal when these men and women
signed up as volunteers.
So it is very, very important that those of us here in Congress make
sure that within this democracy that many of these individuals are
fighting for and making sure and those before them, the veterans,
making sure we can salute one flag, that we honor them through our
courage and integrity when it comes down to this very issue.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to Mr. Ryan.
{time} 1945
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I appreciate that, and I think you are exactly
right. There was a misrepresentation of the facts of the legislation
that was put forth to the White House. I think it's important for us,
for us to go over in a snapshot of what the supplemental bill did that
the President just vetoed.
What this bill did was increase by $1.7 billion the amount of money
that was going to defense health care for the troops. What it did was
it increased veterans spending by $1.7 billion above what the President
wanted. We tried to make law the benchmarks that the President set up
for progress in Iraq on January 10, his benchmarks, and he vetoed that.
Now, the President is vetoing his own statements, if that is not
confusing enough. The key component of this piece of legislation is the
piece that says that our troops can't leave here and go to Iraq if they
don't have the proper body armor, if they don't have the proper
equipment, if they don't have Humvees that are up armored, and if they
don't have the amount of rest that they need. That is what the
President just vetoed.
I think this is a pretty sad day in American history when you have
the President of the United States trying to win a PR battle and using
the troops as hostage. Those are not my words, those are the words of
General Paul Eaton, who just said, after the statement, this is what he
is saying on the President's veto, ``This administration and the
previously Republican controlled legislature have been the most caustic
agents against America's Armed Forces in memory. Less than a year ago,
the Republicans imposed great hardship on the Army and the Marine Corps
by their failure to pass the necessary funding language. This time, the
President of the United States is holding our Soldiers hostage to his
ego. More than ever apparent, only the Army and the Marine Corps are at
war--alone--without their President's support.''
Terrorism around the globe is up 25 percent. Stop doing what you are
doing to make terrorism increase by 25 percent. Enough of the scare
tactics that if we don't fight them there, they are going to come here
and get us. The same scare tactics that they have been trying to employ
for the past 5 years, this is the same group of people who told us, as
was stated earlier, that the oil money would be used for
reconstruction, it would only cost $50 billion, and now we are upwards
of some $500 and some billion after the 2008 budget, going to be
greeted as liberators. All of the statements that have been made in the
past 5 years have been wrong, colossal mistakes.
The same people that said the mission was accomplished are the same
people that are now telling us we don't want any timetables, we don't
want any deadlines, we don't want any goals for when we maybe should
possibly, at some point, get out of Iraq and redeploy out. We don't
want any of that. They expect, after all these mistakes, all of these
blunders, that somehow we are going to trust them.
I am sorry, but you know what? Between now and when the President
decides it's time to get out, how many more soldiers are we going to
lose? How many more kids are we going to go up and see at Walter Reed
who have brain injuries and post-traumatic stress?
That's the difference between today and a year from now. That's the
difference between a deadline and an open-ended war, kids getting
killed and innocent Iraqis getting killed. You know, I think that this
is the height of arrogance that this veto showed by the President.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Let me just add to what you just said. Members
may be in their office watching, or walk here on the floor and say,
what's Mr. Ryan and Mr. Meek talking about, like we are independent
individuals that just come to the floor just to say that we are upset.
I must say that a number of Americans live through the people they
respect in government, be it Republican or Democrat. Sometimes they
lead into this political process. People they get involved in
government for different reasons. Some folks say I am going to latch on
to this individual, or I am going to latch on to that individual. It
might have been John F. Kennedy for someone else. It might have been
Ronald Reagan for another lady, or whatever the case may be.
It may be Speaker of the House, who knows. But they get involved in
government for whatever reason. We got involved in government because
we are the same folks that went and signed up at the supervisor of
elections to run for office, because we wanted to do something about
what was happening here in Washington D.C. and represent the people,
not just Democrats, not just Republicans, not just independents, but
the people, and those that are yet unborn.
I think it's also important, when we start looking at these issues,
we can just open today's Washington Post, May 1. This is May 1, and
this is Tuesday. Front page, April, toll, is the highest of 2007 for
U.S. troops, 100 U.S. troops in a month.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Can I interrupt you and just make a highlight? In
the President's speech today he said that the incident levels are down.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. I hear what you are saying.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I hear you too.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. What is so very important for everyone to
understand here, that this is above and beyond politics right now. For
the President to say, the President is making a political statement, he
is making a political statement because he once said, as long as I am
President, we are not going to pull back any troops from Iraq. Just
because he made that statement doesn't necessarily mean that should be
the case.
We live in democracy, last I checked. No one stopped me walking down
the street. No one kicked in my door, because I have rights. I think
it's important that the President understands that we live in a
democracy. So, really, in my opinion, it's hard to talk directly to the
President about something when he has made a statement, and he has
said, I am going to stick by it.
This is not stick by your guns, you know, stick by whatever, however
the song goes. It's not appropriate to use when you talk about the man,
but it's stick by whatever statement you made. I think it's important
that people understand that we are going to the table of compromise,
which the President said we were going to compromise, he didn't sound
like someone who really wanted to compromise in this statement at 6:10
today.
He sounded like a person saying I am going to veto this, and they can
come to the hill and the bottom line is the Congress is trying to do
this, this and this. That is not looking at compromise, that is looking
at keeping some sort of word that he has made. If you want to talk
about word, I think it's important.
The good thing I like about the 30-Something working group members is
the fact that the Congressional Record and past statements are so very,
very important to today's reality.
The President said, in his comments, that he didn't believe the time
lines, and he spoke out very forcefully against them. Yet in 1990, on
June 5, then Governor Bush said about President Clinton, I think it's
important for the President to lay out a timetable as to how long they
will be involved and when they will be withdrawn, talking about another
conflict.
It's good enough for President Clinton. It's not good enough for him.
It's one thing for you, it's an old saying, it's one thing for you to
ask somebody, you tell someone to do something when you are not willing
to do it. I think it's important, after all of this death, after all of
the conflict that is going on in Iraq, in the middle of the winter, in
the
[[Page H4273]]
middle of the civil war, the American people are crying out. If it was
political, and men and women weren't losing their lives, and Walter
Reed didn't get a plane load of injured soldiers and Marines and airmen
and the Coast Guard and sailors, then I would say, well, let's play the
political role.
As far as I am concerned, when I talked to my friends on the
Republican side of the aisle, I share with them, because I think there
is some good Members that are there that want to speak their mind. When
they see me in the hall or see in the cafeteria, they say, Kendrick,
you know, you were on the floor the other day, you made a lot of sense.
I say, why don't you vote differently. Why don't you vote in the
emergency supplemental to send the troops the money? Because the more
bipartisan votes we have, the harder it will be for the President to do
what they are doing.
Listen, to the Republican minority, you guys are on your way to a
permanent minority in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate
following the President on this issue of don't ask any questions, just
give me a blank check. The American people, unelected a number of
Republican Members of the House and Senate last Congress. Why? Because
they were rubber stamping everything that the President of the United
States wanted.
You have witnessed this. We have seen the difference. Now we have the
opportunity to lead in a bipartisan way. We send a bill to the
President, he says he is going to veto it because he doesn't like it,
and he misrepresents what the bill does. I think it's important, as we
go through this whole discourse of how we are going to carry out for
the next, how we are going to carry out the mission in getting the men
and women what they need, I think it's important that we have a little
truth that rises up out of all of this misinformation.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I totally agree with you. I think the first step
for most people who find themselves in a massive hole and going in the
wrong direction, or following someone who continues to lead them down
the wrong road, is to not follow that person any more.
What the Democratic Congress has provided is what the American people
sent the majority of the Democrats down here for in November, and that
is to take this war in another direction, take our foreign policy in
another direction. That is what this supplemental bill has done. The
American people wanted us to take care of the veterans, and we
increased $500 million for post-traumatic stress disorder, $500 million
additional for brain injuries, that is what the American people wanted,
for us to fix the veterans's problem.
They wanted to make sure, they got tired of hearing about kids over
there without body armor. So we made sure that no kid could go over
there, or soldier or adult who is going to Iraq will not be over there
without the proper equipment, body armor, up-armored Humvees, the
proper rest when they get back, for over a year, let them rest. We gave
the American people what they wanted, and what the troops deserved.
To have that vetoed by a President who has been wrong on every single
major foreign policy and domestic issue over the past 6 years doesn't
make any sense to the American people, and it certainly doesn't make
any sense to us. You look, and it's getting better. You hear this all
the time, it's not getting better.
It's not. If it was getting better, do you think you would have this
uproar from the American people? Do you think you would have all of
these new Members of Congress if things were getting better?
In a report that just came out, National Counterterrorism Center,
terrorist incidents in Iraq rose by 91 percent from 3,468 in 2005 to
6,630 in 2006 and getting worse. Innocent Iraqis are getting killed all
the time, and they believe it's because the American soldiers are
there, because the American presence is there. That is what they
believe, and we are saying we need to redeploy out of these major
centers and stop policing a civil war. That is exactly what's
happening.
One of the things we wanted to do in the supplemental that the
President just vetoed is hold the Iraqi government accountable for
training their own soldiers. You know, the President has always said,
when they stand up, we stand down. Then they keep telling us that the
Iraqi soldiers are standing up, but we are not standing down, which
means they are not standing up.
We wanted to put benchmarks in there so that the Iraqi soldiers would
have to meet them or were leaving. Now, you can't give people open-
ended situations in which they can get out of. All we are trying to do
is hold the Iraqi government responsible.
I don't like saying it, because I didn't support this war from the
beginning. To go in there and knock everything around and then say you
are not doing what you are doing, but the bottom line is, if you do not
get yourself trained, if you do not, as a country, get your police
force ready, and your military ready, we can't stay here forever.
{time} 2000
And, Mr. Speaker, I don't think that is too much to ask. And the
response from the President through his Secretary of State, Secretary
Rice, signaled Bush's opposition to, ``Any war spending bill,'' check
this out, ``that penalizes Iraqi's government for failing to make
progress.'' We are not going to punish them for failing to make
progress. Are we in a therapy session here?
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I will be happy to yield.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. You know, a mayor of a U.S. city has to carry
out accountability for Federal money; State governments have to account
for the dollars and the progress of programs, block grant dollars, that
we send to the States. Here on U.S. soil, they have to be accountable
to the Federal Government. If they are not accountable, they may very
well lose, what? Federal funding.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That is right.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. And what the President is saying, and this blank
check; you know, Mr. Ryan, I really think that the President thinks
that he has a rubber stamp Congress. I think that is what he is thinks,
because that is what he is used to.
It is almost like having a situation if you are a small business
owner and you come in and you have a shop in one county and you spend
most of your time over in the other county, you come over to your other
shop and you notice the way they are doing business and there aren't
any accountability measures on productivity, there are no
accountability measures on spending. And you are wondering why this
shop, the shop in the opposite county that you are very seldom at is
running on time or being cost effective, and then you come in and you
say that there should be change; but then, better yet, the manager of
that shop says, well, why should we change? I know we are not doing
things the way you want us to do it and we know that we are spending a
lot of money over here. Why should we change? Well, that is what we
have right now.
The President is saying that the Iraqi elected officials and the
Iraqi government don't have to be accountable and their feet should not
be held to the fire. But, better yet, we have mayors, governors, State
legislators, county commissioner, parish, what have you, they have to
be accountable or they lose their funding or don't get their funding
when you are in a war that is costing $500 billion and counting.
When you look at these issues, Members, you can't help but say
something is not right here. These are the people that are here in the
United States of America, States, cities, counties that have to be
accountable through Federal law and Federal appropriations. And over
here, we have the Iraqi government. 3,351 of our men and women that
have died, over 26-plus thousand that have been injured. And wasted
money. And 100 soldiers that died last month alone. And we don't want
accountable measures over here. We want to trust the administration on
it, and we just want to say don't put any benchmarks there, don't even
put any real goals there, don't do anything, don't ask any questions,
just send us the money; you don't know what you are doing.
Well, I tell you this much. As long as this majority is here in this
House of
[[Page H4274]]
Representatives that passed a bipartisan bill, sent it to the White
House, that had accountability measures in it, my prayer tonight is
going to be for those that will be there at the negotiating table there
in the White House come tomorrow morning that, on both sides, that they
hold the interests of the American people before you hold the interests
of someone that made a promise in Iraq, in a foreign land, to say that
we are going to have as much flexibility that we are going to have, and
accountability measures don't need to be in place.
It couldn't come at a worse time, Mr. Ryan. The newspaper is full and
the media is full of how the American people have not been told the
truth. It is sickening. I feel that it is something that I didn't do in
the minority. Maybe I didn't understand something in the last two
Congresses that I was a part of, of watching all of this lack of
information that has been given to Congress and how the administration
has gotten away with this, and they have gotten away with saying, ``I
am sorry, that is all. What do you want from us?'' We lost e-mails, CIA
agents have been outed, clandestine operations abroad have been
jeopardized. Men and women, there have been cover-ups. I am talking
about testimony before Congress just weeks ago, things have been
covered up with friendly fire of certain individuals that signed up to
defend this country. Meanwhile, we are sitting here being nice guys and
nice ladies and not standing and hold their feet to the fire.
This is the reason why we have a U.S. House of Representatives, the
reason we have a U.S. Senate, the reason why there are three branches
of government, where we don't have kingdom politics where one just says
this is the way it is going to be, like it or not.
Well, I have got a message for the White House and I have also got a
message from the American people. The bottom line is we live in a
democracy. We would love to sit down at the table of compromise so that
we can come out with a work product. But don't sit there saying what
you are not going to do and what you are going to do before you sit
down at the table. At least the leadership here is saying that we are
going to make sure that there is accountability and that there are
benchmarks there for progress, and make sure the U.S. taxpayer dollars
are being sent, not just some sort of slogan of saying, well, you know,
I am trying to command from over here. I mean, it didn't make sense,
Mr. Ryan. But the bottom line is, the thing that is good about this
whole thing is that if this was a year ago, it wouldn't even be a
debate. It wouldn't even be discussed. Accountability? Oh, no. The
majority would say, we wouldn't do that. And now we have the
accountability, we have the strength of the majority in the Senate and
the strength of the majority here in the House.
But if there was a political question, like I said before, and one
would sit back and just let it play out and say, well, one day we will
get to that point. We cannot afford to get to that one day. We have to
do this now. Not several months from now, now. The American people
demand it, the U.S. troops deserve it, our veterans deserve it.
There are dollars in this emergency supplemental that fix Walter Reed
and start to fix the veterans services in this country. There are
dollars in here that help make sure that the men and women have the
proper training and the equipment before they get to the field. Wow,
Mr. Ryan, there is a revelation there, that we will have equipment and
that we would make sure that striker forces have what they need of
making sure they have a commander and a gunner and a driver, the
essentials, that are trained in those categories before that striker
vehicle pulls out of Camp Victory. Wow, there is something, that we are
actually going to do what we said we are going to do, and we are going
to take the Department of Defense's own regulations, Mr. Ryan, and put
it into Federal law in this emergency supplemental; of saying that if
you are going to spend these dollars, this $124-plus billion, that you
are going to be accountable in these ways, Department of Defense.
The reason why the President doesn't like this, Mr. Ryan, is the fact
that it is actually doing what it said that he would do, and he doesn't
want his words to actually come to fruition when it comes down to the
way he described it. He came here at this podium, Mr. Ryan, we were
sitting right out here. He came to that podium and said: We are going
to hold the Iraqi government accountable. We are going to make sure
that they train the troops. All of these things that he said, we took
note as the Congress and put it into the emergency supplemental. And I
think it is important that everyone understands what that is.
One other thing, Mr. Ryan. The bill provides $21.1 billion for
military health care, more than what the President requested; $900
million of that for posttraumatic stress disorder, $661 million to
prevent health care fees increasing on our troops, $20 million to
address the problem at Walter Reed. It provides $1.8 billion for more
veterans health care, more than what the President has called for. I
want to add again, $595 million to address the backlog maintaining the
VA health care facilities, $250 million to hire additional personnel
for the administration for VA health care, for the health care system,
$229 million for treatment for the growing number of Iraqi and
Afghanistan veterans, $100 million for mental health care in veterans
assistance, $83 million to speed up the processing of claims for
veterans returning back from Iraq and Afghanistan. It also provides
other additional above what the President calls for as it relates to
supporting of the troops.
And I think it is important that people understand, $2 billion for
more strategic reserve readiness funds, which $1 billion is for Army
National Guard equipment shortfalls. This is very, very important. $1.1
billion for more military housing and $3 billion more for making sure
that there is mine resistant ambush protection, what we call MRAPs, for
troops in Iraq.
Mr. Ryan, the reason why the President is talking about additional
spending, I want to make sure that every veteran in the United States
of America understands that he is talking about the money that I just
described and then some.
So, Mr. Speaker, I know that the President is used to having bills
come to his desk that he can't even wait for it to get through the door
before he signs it in tax cuts for the billionaires and those super
wealthy. But this time he had legislation that's before him or he had
legislation before him that he vetoed it that would have helped
everyday Joe and Sue that signed up to serve this country in the way
that this country asked them to serve. And, doggone it, if we can't
stand behind them, then something is really wrong.
And I am really glad, Mr. Ryan, that I am not just speaking on the
behalf of the ``if we could, we would.'' But I can tell you this. What
the majority leader is doing when he sits down in the Senate with the
President tomorrow and the Speaker of this House what she is doing when
she sits down with the President of the United States tomorrow, I want
them to feel that they are wearing the breastplate of righteousness to
be able to go to the President and say, these are average people, they
are not sons and daughters of millionaires and billionaires. And, you
know something? They are going to have rights, too. They have rights.
And they have the right to be represented, and they will be
represented. And I am so happy that we are going toe to toe with the
President of the United States, not for politics, but for the country
and for the folks that their mom and dad, they may only own one pickup
truck, some of them wanted to go to college but couldn't afford to go
to college, some might have gone to college and went into the Marines
or to the Army or to the Navy or to the Air Force or into the Coast
Guard. Those that are serving in theater as officers, we owe it to
them. That is the bottom line. They deserve the representation.
I know that the President is used to getting a blank check so
Halliburton can spend all the money they want to spend and burn trucks
and then get paid by the Federal Government. That will no longer
happen, not under this watch, not as long as we have a Democratic
majority in this House and a bipartisan spirit that is willing to send
him the bill.
I don't want to challenge the President to veto another bill. I want
to challenge the President to come to the table and sit down, and let's
have a sensible conversation and let's come up with a work product that
we can all
[[Page H4275]]
live with. It is not going to all be that he wants, it is not going to
be all that we want. But doggone it, Mr. Speaker, when they rise from
that table and we get the report, the rest of us, Members of Congress,
the integrity of what we have sent to the White House when it comes
down to accountability, when it comes down to performance, and when it
comes down to holding the Iraqi government accountable and assisting
our men and women that have served and those that are coming back from
theater when they need veteran services, that must be there. That has
to be there. And if the President doesn't allow it, then I would say
our leadership should not allow him to have his way.
As far as I am concerned, it is a no-brainer; and that is the reason
why the American people overwhelmingly support our position, Mr. Ryan.
When I say our position, I am not saying the Democratic majority's
position, I am saying the position of the bipartisan legislation that
we passed through House and Senate.
I want to thank you for your patience, sir, because I thought it was
very, very important that we talk a little bit about what the President
did veto and what's in the legislation so that folks don't get the
misrepresentation that has been given to them over the last hour or so
from the White House.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And let's be clear about this whole issue of
deadlines. There was a deadline that came out of the House version, for
the political junkies that are paying attention, Mr. Speaker. There was
a hard deadline that came out of the House version, not in the Senate
version. And the compromise that just went to the President had the
goal, just the goal of maybe getting out of Iraq. No hard deadline,
just the goal, because we knew that he would veto a hard deadline. And
as much as we don't like it, he is the President of the United States.
But there is the goal of leaving. This President, Mr. Speaker, can't
even think about the goal of getting out of Iraq. He doesn't even want
to talk about it.
There is no deadline in this supplemental that he just vetoed, no
hard deadline at all. The language said, the goal of getting out. So
let's be very, very clear.
Now, when people ask, well, why do we need to get out. People I think
feel why. There's a lot of really good examples, not just from
Democrats as some of our friends may like to think, but from a variety
of others.
{time} 2015
Here's what is happening in Iraq, as the Washington Post reported,
``A department of the Iraqi Prime Minister's Office is playing a
leading role,'' this is the Iraqi Prime Minister's Office, playing a
leading role ``in the arrest and removal of senior Iraqi Army and
National Police Officers, some of whom had apparently worked too
aggressively to combat violent Shiite militias, according to U.S.
military officials in Baghdad. Since March 1, at least 16 Army and
National Police Commanders have been fired, detained or pressured to
resign. At least 9 of them are Sunnis.''
So now they are removing police and military people that are cracking
down on the wrong, somehow the wrong group of terrorists. And some
folks say this is not like Vietnam.
How about Senator Hagel, leading Republican, conservative. I read
today he had an 85 percent rating from a conservative think tank. So he
is clearly a conservative Republican. He just got back from Iraq.
Here's what he says in Mr. Novak's column of yesterday, or 2 days ago.
``This thing is coming undone quickly, and Maliki's government is
weaker by the day. The police are corrupt, top to bottom. The oil
problem is a huge problem. They still can't get anything through the
parliament. No hydrocarbon law, no deBaathification law, no provincial
elections.''
That's Chuck Hagel, our friend in the Senate, our colleague in the
United States Senate. Republican from Nebraska; 85 percent conservative
rating from a conservative group here in Washington.
We're saying that we need to change direction, Mr. Speaker. We're
saying that the Iraqi government has had over 4 years to try to piece
this thing together, and that we've done all that we can do. And the
American people do not want to lose any more soldiers to this war. And
we want a deadline. We want to get out. We want to get out with
respect. We want to get out with dignity, we want to get out and
protect our troops.
But it turns out that the presence of the United States in Iraq is
inciting violence. We're inciting the civil war. We're the ones being
attacked, as well as others around. And in April, it's been the sixth
highest month of American soldiers getting killed in the entirety of
the war.
Let's fix this. Let's go in a new direction. This is not time for
bravado. This it not time for ego. This is time for the American people
to come together and the Congress to come together, the President to
recognize that this has not worked, and for us to try to re-establish
some level of credibility in the world. And this President needs to
listen to the will of the American people.
And I want to make one final point, because we have this tremendous
debate in the country that is not always framed the right way. But I
want friends who we run into in the street, and someone says I'm pro-
choice and I'm pro-life, and I think we're all pro-life. But the debate
has been framed as such that pro-life Americans take their role and
their issues very seriously.
And I find it extremely ironic, as a pro-life Democrat who voted for
the partial birth abortion bill, that this President has two vetos. His
one veto is on stem cell research, because that's a pro-life issue. And
his second veto is to continue a war in which thousands of American
soldiers have been killed and injured, and in which tens of thousands,
if not hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens, innocent, many of them,
have been killed. And by keeping this open-ended, by keeping this open-
ended, we know that there will be more death and destruction.
So I find it ironic that this President has two vetos; one pro-life,
supposedly, and the other pro-war. And how they reconcile that on the
other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, I'll have no idea. But I think it is
important for us to recognize how sometimes dysfunctional the
philosophy, Mr. Meek, of this President and this administration has
been.
And so, let's, on the anniversary of ``Mission Accomplished,'' and
recognizing the failures of the past, let's do what Americans do, and
that's fix the problem. Americans are full of problem solvers, and
that's what we do in this country. We fix things, whether it's the car
or the computer, or the truck, we fix things.
And I hope that the President will find it in his heart to sit down
with Speaker Pelosi, to sit down with Leader Reid and the leadership
from this Congress, and draw on the knowledge of Ike Skelton, the Chair
of our Armed Services Committee, who's been in this institution, I
think, over 30 years. Draw on the knowledge of Jack Murtha, who's been
in this Congress almost 40 years on the Defense Appropriations
Committee. And stop listening to those people who got us in this
situation.
I yield to my friend.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. You know, Mr. Ryan, it's interesting. You
mentioned Chairman Murtha. Chairman Murtha was fine with the
administration as long as he was voting with the administration in the
minority, being the ranking member on Defense Appropriations. They
didn't have a problem with him. As a matter of fact, he was held up as
a hero, decorated veteran, longstanding member of the Defense
Appropriations Committee in the House, ally, called to the White House
for his advice.
As soon as Mr. Murtha figured out that, not only was the intelligence
that the Congress was given was inaccurate, and as soon as he figured
out that we could not win ``war militarily,'' and he went through a
long assessment in figuring this out, and talking with professionals
and talking with generals, talking with those that are still enlisted,
going into theater, that's what you're supposed to do as an
appropriator, making sure the American taxpayer dollars are being spent
appropriately; making sure that what they're telling you here on
Capitol Hill is actually reality, is the actual reality out in the
field.
A lot of folks look to the Middle East when they think of the war.
Well, the
[[Page H4276]]
effects of the war are felt right here in this country. You go to the
military bases and you talk to these families. It's hard to go to many
of these military bases because you see the children, you see the
husband or the wife that's left behind. You see those that have lost
their loved one, or those that are now, have their loved one coming
back without an arm or a leg, or mentally affected by going into
theater without the necessary time back home to recover mentally and
physically from being in the middle of a civil war. I think it's
important for us to realize that and understand that there's great
gravity on this issue.
And the President may believe, in his own mind and also within his
advisors that are standing around him, that he has to stick to his
guns, he has to, you know, it's a fight at the OK Corral or here in the
Capitol city. It's not a fight. We're all Americans. We're all on the
same side. We salute one flag.
I think it's important for us to understand that there are some folks
here, some of them wear blue jeans, some of them wear, you know, shop
at big box stores and small stores in the small town, some folk never
walked in a mall before, and if they walked in a mall they couldn't
afford many of the things that are in the mall. These are a number of
our, a super majority of the folks that are represented within the
Armed Services. They aren't the only ones that serve their country, but
many of them are financial challenged. And their voice is just
as strong as the next person, or should be.
And so when we talk about just the simple things on behalf of the men
and women in uniform and making sure that we bring some sense to this,
because if the President had his way, we would be there, my children's
children will have an opportunity to see this war continue.
And I think it's very, very important that we talk about
accountability; not talk about it, act on it. And that's what we're
doing. We're acting on it.
Let's look at what the President is all concerned about. The
President must determine that substantial progress, I must add, is made
on security, political and reconstruction benchmarks by July, 2007.
Well, the President can just say, well, you know, I think that's fine.
I think we're making progress.
If the President cannot certify progress, redeployment must start by
July with a goal of being completed, and it has to be certified, that
if in July, certification is made, redeployment of U.S. troops may
begin by August 1 of 2007, with a goal to be complete within 180 days,
by March 31, 2008.
This is sending a message to the Iraqi government that they have to
whip themselves in shape; they have to make sure that we train the
troops. Now, this is combat, this is not cutting off training. Training
will continue. The things that will take U.S. troops out of harm's way
will continue.
We're patrolling the streets of Baghdad. We're patrolling the streets
of Tikrit and other places. You hear reports of security forces, Iraqi
security forces, it's very slim. But you hear an uptick in U.S. troops
that are taking place, I mean, that are taking place right now. And so
I think it's all important that we understand that accountability
measures are in place.
Now, Mr. Ryan, when we talk about accountable. It's interesting. On
the prescription drug plan there were benchmarks. You had to be
enrolled by a certain date. And if you weren't enrolled by a certain
date then there would be penalties for not enrolling by a certain date.
It's very, very important that Americans and the Members of this
Congress understand that anything, to bring about progress, has to have
benchmarks and goals.
To kind of just say, well, hey, here's $1 million. Don't worry about
it. We don't care if you provide what you say that you're going to
provide. We don't care how you spend it. You use your own discretion.
You spend it. We're not going to say anything.
Well, that's been the case for about 4 years in this Iraq war. And
now we're saying that we want to march by a different drummer's beat,
one of accountability, one of making sure the integrity of what we tell
the American people is actually, you actually see it, you actually are
able to follow through with that, what you said that you were going to
do, that you actually do it, Mr. Ryan.
And the problem is that the President is finding himself having to be
accountable. And I can tell you right now that the political question,
it's not an issue here, because the election took place last November.
The people have spoken, so we don't even need to get on that issue.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Can I share with the American people and our
colleagues one more? First, I thought it was interesting, and our crack
staff here, the President gave his speech in front of the Jefferson
Memorial. We've got a great quote, 1789, when Jefferson wrote a letter
to Madison talking about war. ``We have already given one effectual
check to the dog of war, by transferring the power of letting him loose
from the Executive to the Legislative body, from those who are to spend
to those who are to pay.''
And I think it would be appropriate, if Mr. Bush is going to use
President Jefferson as a backdrop, that he should recognize at least
his philosophy on some of these issues.
But a quote from General John Batiste, retired general. Today, and
this is on his response to the President's veto. ``The President vetoed
our troops and the American people. His stubborn commitment to a failed
strategy in Iraq is incomprehensible. He committed our great military
to a failed strategy in violation of basic principles of war. His
failure to mobilize the Nation to defeat worldwide Islamic extremism is
tragic.''
{time} 2030
``We deserve more from our Commander in Chief and his
administration.'' That is Major General John Batiste, retired general.
It has been a pleasure being here with you today. I hope this week,
with the leadership of Leader Pelosi, that we continue to stand strong
behind the American people. And you can be assured, Mr. Speaker, that
when Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reid are there tomorrow negotiating that they
will be representing the will of the American people, the 65 percent of
the American people that want a deadline to get us out.
[email protected] for any e-mails that the Members may
want to send us. The charts that we have here, some we showed tonight
and some we didn't, are all on our Web site www.speaker.gov/
30something. And, again, the e-mail address is
[email protected].
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Ryan, I thought you made
some very good points when you read the comments from the general, when
you talked about the Jefferson backdrop and all today.
General Petraeus, whom I know and I have seen in theater, which I
have been to Iraq twice, yes, he is a man that we all feel very good
about. We know that he is carrying out a mission on behalf of his
country. But we should not ride on the back of his accomplishments as a
general and a commander in the field to justify the policy that is
being carried out by this administration.
I tell you this, Mr. Ryan, that historians, in the very near future,
are going to look back at this time and are going to wonder where the
leaders were when this war and this moment right now that we are
speaking in was taking place. When I used to play football, we used to
have a saying, ``The blind leading the blind and the two shall fall in
the ditch.'' The bottom line is if you know that the policy has been
wrong, the intelligence has been inaccurate, and that everyone that has
left the administration has just about written a book about when the
lie was told and how they heard it first and when it was said, I think
it is important that people understand and that the Members of this
House understand how history will reflect on your vote and your lack of
leadership or your leadership. One of the two. If you want to listen to
someone else, and I talked to my friends on the minority side, the
Republican side. There are some of their former colleagues right now
watching us in this debate here on the floor and wishing that they
could take their vote back and stand up to the administration. Maybe,
just maybe, they would still be in Congress.
Mr. Speaker, I will close on this point: The bottom line is that it
is time for leadership. It is time for Members on both sides of the
aisle and especially on the minority side of the aisle,
[[Page H4277]]
the Republican side of the aisle, to go see the wizard, get some
courage, and come back to this floor and back the will of the American
people for accountability for our men and women in harm's way and
making sure that we hold to the integrity of what the President said he
would do and making sure that we hold the Iraqi government's feet to
the fire as though we would hold the mayor of Youngstown, Ohio's, feet
to the fire or Sioux City, Iowa. We are going to hold their feet to the
fire for Federal dollars. Why can't we hold Iraqi government's feet for
Federal dollars? And the President is saying don't hold their feet to
the fire and don't hold my words, whatever I have said in the past, as
though I meant what I said. And the bottom line is that we have a
responsibility.
So as we carry out that responsibility tomorrow morning at the White
House, I hope that we are at the table of compromise but also holding
to the integrity of what we originally sent to the President.
There has already been compromise. The language changed from when we
passed it here on the floor and it went to the conference committee.
Some language was changed then because the President didn't like it,
and then it came to the floor and we voted for that. And now it is to
the White House, and the President says he still doesn't like it. Now
we are about to sit down again with the President to talk about these
issues. And then maybe, just maybe, there may be another vote here on
the floor and the President may say he still doesn't like it.
So when it comes down to the speech of who is letting the troops
down, I think it is going to become more and more evident to the
American people and to the Congress that we have a problem on the
executive branch end of not being at the table of compromise for real
on behalf of our men and women in uniform. We are doing our job. Let's
continue to do it.
With that, Mr. Ryan, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the leadership for
allowing us to come here to address the American people in the U.S.
House once again. It was a great honor.
____________________