[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 80 (Tuesday, May 15, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H5044-H5050]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) is recognized for 
60 minutes.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to be before the House 
of Representatives once again with the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. 
Murphy) to share with the American people and our colleagues some of 
the issues that are facing the United States of America today, and that 
I think will have ramifications for the future of this country.
  The past few weeks here have been very exciting as we continue to try 
to press the President of the United States to find his way in Iraq and 
begin the withdrawal of our troops.
  I think it is important for the American people to recognize the 
position of the majority party in the House of Representatives and the 
position of the majority in the United States Senate represented by 
Speaker Pelosi and Senate majority leader Harry Reid in which we are 
trying to begin the process of winding down the war in Iraq and 
expanding the global war on terrorism.
  The war in Iraq does not have anything to do with the war on 
terrorism, and we hear from the President consistently that if we don't 
fight them over there, we are going to have to fight them over here. I 
think it is important for us to recognize that only 2 to 3 percent of 
the people fighting in Iraq are al Qaeda. We are in the middle of a 
civil war in a country that 70 percent of the citizens of that country 
in

[[Page H5045]]

Iraq believe it is okay to shoot American soldiers. That is where we 
are in the middle of this civil war, a religious civil war between 
religious groups and ethnic factions in which Americans in many 
instances are the targets of this civil war now.
  We have seen in the last 4 months, Mr. Speaker, the deaths of more 
Americans in that 4-month period than any other 4-month period during 
the war. It is getting worse by the day. Many of us continue to talk to 
soldiers who come back and go back and forth, and they are very 
discrete with us and they share with us information that they are maybe 
not willing to say publicly. But if I have heard it from one soldier, I 
have heard it from 15 or 20 from my district and around the country who 
I have talked with. And they inevitably say: What is winning? What is 
winning this war?
  We ask the President time and time again: What does winning mean? We 
are beginning to try the process that the President keeps vetoing of 
winding this war down.
  When you have a scenario where you have a couple thousand or 3,000 or 
4,000 U.S. and Iraqi soldiers in cities of over 100,000 trying to 
secure and trying to find out who these insurgents are when they all 
dress in civilian clothes, they all drive civilian cars. No one has a 
uniform on. No one is driving a tank. This is a guerrilla war that we 
are in the middle of. It is becoming very, very difficult for us to 
secure it. I believe we have missed the opportunity to secure that 
country because we lack troops.
  I don't want to take all of the time up tonight. I know Mr. Murphy is 
such a courteous New Englander that he would probably let me, but I 
think it is important that the citizens of this country know that the 
Democratic Party is trying to end this war. We want timetables. We want 
accountability, and the one thing that we are saying to the President 
of the United States, two things, this is not going to be an open-ended 
war and you are not getting a blank check.
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Thank you, Mr. Ryan. I am nothing if not a 
fan of New England etiquette. I would let the gentleman speak for as 
long as he wishes, but he makes great points.
  The American people sent this new Congress in order to set a new 
direction. They didn't imagine on election day that new direction was 
putting more troops in harm's way in the middle of a civil war. The 
word ``escalation'' was not in their vocabulary when they conceived of 
what that new direction would be.
  They believed it was about time to start listening to the bipartisan 
foreign policy community as represented by the Iraq Study Group Report, 
of the record number of generals coming back and telling us we needed 
to start setting a new course. They believed that new direction was 
about redeploying our forces and bringing the National Guard home.
  I hope tonight we will talk about how stressed the National Guard is, 
bringing the troops back home to protect ourselves on our homefront, 
and being able to respond to the natural disasters and emergencies that 
are all too frequent on our own shore, and begin to focus on places 
where we can still win.
  Afghanistan, a fight that is taking it right to the insurgency that 
attacked this country, taking it right to the training ground of al 
Qaeda, the place where Osama bin Laden trained and prepared his forces 
to attack this country. Certainly we can win there, but it is time we 
start recognizing what that new direction has to be.
  It was amazing when I listened to the Republican leader say a week or 
so ago, and I am paraphrasing, but the thought was that the Republicans 
were willing to hear out the President's plan to escalate the war for a 
period of time. But, say, by the fall or later this year if it wasn't 
working, it was time for the President to propose plan B.
  I am not sure how anyone who has been watching this play out for the 
last 4 years could still believe we are on plan A. We are not plan A or 
B, we are on like plan triple R right now. We have tried everything. 
And guess what, every new strategy, every new approach that we take 
based solely on military might alone, which has been essentially our 
practice so far, has made the situation even more chaotic and has 
plunged Baghdad and its environs into greatest chaos.
  Why? Guess what, because the rest of us, the American public and the 
Democratic Caucus, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, retired generals 
from every stripe, have realized that we cannot win this conflict. And 
everyone's definition of win is different, I understand, but we cannot 
prove victorious there on the force of our military might alone.
  I got to spend a couple of days on the ground in Baghdad with those 
soldiers. If anyone can fulfill the mission they have been given, it is 
the men and women in the Armed Forces that we have put on the ground. 
They are the bravest and most capable people I have ever been around. 
But the fact is that we have given them a mission which is nearly 
impossible.
  We are forcing them one day to be soldiers, the next day to be 
diplomats, and the next day to be civil engineers. The reason why plan 
A through Z has not worked yet is because it doesn't recognize the very 
fact that if we can solve this, if we can somehow bring some resolution 
to Iraq, it will be through diplomatic and political might, not sheer 
military force.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Just to think about the lack of planning and 
details for the whole deal, as these Iraqi troops are supposed to stand 
up, we are supposed to stand down. That is why in our supplemental we 
said let's work something out. There was no exact formula, but as one 
brigade of Iraqi troops are trained to the level the President 
certifies, we bring one home.
  If the whole premise of the President's policy was as they stand up, 
we stand down, he has been saying that for such a long time, and that 
was in our supplemental bill that we passed a couple of weeks ago.
  I know our good friend Steve Israel from New York and Ike Skelton 
have been promoting this idea for a long time, and that was in there. 
That is the kind of thing that the Democrats are doing.
  But to focus on the lack of planning, not to beat a dead horse, but 
we now have soldiers over there who are in charge of two, three, 400 
Iraqi soldiers. One person that I know who is in charge of 400 Iraqi 
soldiers, do you know how many interpreters he has to communicate with?
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. How many?
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. One. He has one interpreter to help him communicate 
with 400 Iraqi soldiers.
  Now these are all of the things that were not accounted for before we 
went into this place. That's what we are saying. There is a time and a 
place for military action. Afghanistan is the one we all cite, where 
they were harboring the al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
  But now we have put these soldiers in a position where they are 
losing their friends. They are in dangerous situations. They don't know 
how long they are going to be there. Their tours keep getting extended, 
and you can't keep doing this to our soldiers.
  And then you have a natural disaster in the United States and you 
don't have enough Guardsmen and -women to address the local problem.

                              {time}  1945

  Let's fix this. Let's work together to fix this problem and let's 
work with the President. Let's work with the members of the minority 
party in the House and the Senate to say let's start winding this thing 
down. That's what we want to do, and that's how I think we are going to 
begin to regain some credibility in the world. We are actually going to 
be pro-troop, pro-soldier by getting them out of a position that they 
can't survive in. We see the death tolls going up and we see what's 
happening at Walter Reed, and when you look at what we were able to do, 
immediate funding for the troops for the next 60 to 90 days and an 
evaluation of how we are doing, is that too much to ask?
  I yield to my good friend.
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, we have been in this fight 
over timetables, and so many of us believe that we have got to start 
setting a deadline on when the Iraqis are going to have to stand up for 
themselves. Okay, so we passed that, and the President vetoed, and we 
came back and said, all right, let's talk about something a little bit 
less than that. Let's talk about what you outlined.
  Let's give you all the money you want and more for the next several

[[Page H5046]]

months for the conduct of this war, and then after that's done, let's 
see if it's working. That's a revolutionary concept here. Before we 
authorize the next round of several dozen billion dollars for the 
conduct of this war, let's just ask some questions. Is it working? Are 
the Iraqis doing what they need to do to achieve a political 
settlement? And guess what, the message is to that idea as well, that's 
not acceptable either; it is going to get a veto just like the first 
one.
  There was a word that was just lost here for a long time. You and the 
30-somethings talked about it night after night, but it was a foreign 
phrase to people and it is accountability. It is accountability.
  Guess why the Iraqis consider going home for the summer? Why the 
parliament thinks it is okay to stand down? Because they know they have 
a crutch to rely on. They know that the Americans will be there as long 
as they continue to refuse to stand their military up, to stand their 
political institutions up, to stand up their ministries.
  They know that, in fact, we're going to reward their incompetence. 
Enough is enough.
  I got to spend a couple of days there, and in addition to spending 
some time with the troops you get to spend a little bit of time with 
the Iraqi military, and you can see that there's potential there. You 
can see that they are ready to do this mission but you can also see 
that there's no incentive there to do it right now.
  And so that word ``accountability'' which has been lost here for so 
long is I think a large reason for why Congress looks a little bit 
different now, why you have a whole bunch of new Members who were sent 
here, not just to wrap up this war, not just to bring our troops home 
but to also instill in this government a sense that if we are going to 
spend taxpayer dollars, we better have some accounting for how it is 
done.
  The two bills that we have passed, both the first bill that set a 
timetable to wrap up this war; the second bill, frankly, is as 
reasonable as you can get in trying to provide some benchmarks for 
success, they are both about that missing word missing here for a long 
time. It is accountability.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Absolutely. We have another thing to add to the 
list of the promises that were made that we rehashed here many, many 
times. When you look at we are going to be greeted as liberators, we 
only need $50 billion, we can use the oil for reconstruction, you know, 
all of these things that were told to us before the war that ended up 
not being true, we have something that we can add as we have seen this 
week, May 12 edition of the news, and comparing it to this statement 
that the President made on the Iraqi government, New York Times, 
January 28, 2005, ``But asked if, as a matter of principle, the United 
States would pull out of Iraq at the request of a new (Iraqi) 
government, he said,'' the President said, `` `Absolutely. This is a 
sovereign government.' ''
  May 12, 2007, fast forward, majority of Iraq lawmakers seek timetable 
for U.S. exit. Majority of Iraq's parliament members signed a petition 
for a timetable governing withdrawal of American troops. The American 
people want us out. The Iraqi parliament wants us out. Seventy percent 
of the Iraqi citizens think it is okay to shoot an American soldier. 
This President is the only one in the world who thinks it's a good idea 
for us to stay there, and it's the same person who told us this slew of 
inaccurate data, information, tactic, strategy 5 years ago.
  So we are trying to fix this problem, and we are having a heck of a 
time getting past this President. And he is the President and he does 
have the veto power, but he needs to recognize we want accountability. 
He's not getting a blank check, and this is not going to be an open-
ended war.
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. We talk about the enormous and 
unconscionable level of American casualties there, and the number that 
we focus on are the number of men and women who don't come back, and 
not enough focus gets put on the number of American soldiers who come 
back with grave, crippling injuries. But we don't talk at all about the 
number of Iraqis who have been killed, the immense civilian casualties 
that mount not by the two or three or four a day but mount by the 
dozens every day.
  And so when you see what we are seeing now, which is an Iraqi 
parliament standing up and saying enough is enough, we need the 
Americans to go home, what you're hearing is a bunch of people who are 
realizing that the best way to keep their own people safe is to have 
the Americans stand down because, on more days than not, we are drawing 
additional fire into the chaos there.
  We went over and asked the generals there, we said, listen, tell us 
how much of the fire that you are seeing in and around Baghdad is a 
result of Shia and Sunni violence and tell us how much of the fire is 
directed at American forces. And the stat was pretty amazing. Ninety 
percent of the fire there is fire directed from one religious civil 
group to the next, from one sect to the other. Ten percent of it is 
directed at American forces. It's an inexcusable 10 percent, but to 
think that we are asking our men and women to stand in the middle and 
be a human shield between Shia and Sunni fighting each other, in fact 
sometimes Shia and Shia, Sunni and Sunni fighting each other, is a 
miserable way to conduct foreign policy.
  And I asked one of those soldiers, I said, you know, you're being 
asked one day to try to negotiate some political settlement between 
religious groups, when the day before they were shooting at each other; 
how on earth do you tell who's shooting at who? And the soldier looked 
at me inquisitively, sort of shocked that I would ask the question. He 
said, we don't know who's shooting at us; if they are shooting at us, 
we shoot back. That's their job. That's their job, to protect them, to 
protect the people around them.
  But as you said, the fact is when you can't tell who it is that's 
doing the shooting how on earth the next day are you going to be 
expected to sit down and try to mend the fences that gave rise to that 
violence in the first place?
  Like I said, if anybody can do it, I think that these guys and women 
can do it. They are the most amazing, capable people that I have ever 
met in my life, but the fact is that if you don't know who's 
perpetuating the violence, it's very hard to heal those wounds the next 
day.
  And to my mind, if the Iraqis are telling us that what they believe 
is necessary to make their country safe is a precipitous withdrawal of 
American forces, if our own intelligence community is telling us that 
we are less safe because of what's going on there, the Iraq Study 
Group, retired generals, American public, Iraqi parliament, 
intelligence community, there's a wall around Pennsylvania Avenue right 
now, and none of that seems to be going in there. And if we don't 
change course sooner or later, we're going to do damage that is not 
going to be even reversible by this Democratic Congress.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Let's look at what we are just trying to do. All 
we're saying is we're going to give the President, he wants $100 
billion and we're saying we want to give you $30-some billion, and then 
D.C. lingo, fence the rest of the money in, the other $50 or $60 
billion, until he comes back, the President comes back to us in July 
and is able to articulate to the United States Congress and the 
American people and the world what exactly the progress has been. And 
if you have progress, then you will be willing to come and make that 
argument to us here. And then we will have another vote, and we will 
decide if we are going to release the rest of the money or do something 
else, begin winding it down even quicker.
  But I find it very disturbing, Mr. Speaker, that the President of the 
United States is not willing to come to the United States Congress, 
created by Article I, section 1 of the Constitution, the people's 
House, and articulate why our soldiers are still in Iraq, why we're not 
having success, why benchmarks aren't being met, why the Iraqi soldiers 
aren't being trained. You come back to the United States Congress and 
you tell us what the situation is, and then we control the money, and 
if there's progress we will give you more. If it continues like it's 
been going, we're going to give you enough to get these kids back home.
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. This place has been a one-horse show for a 
real long time. You talk about the Constitution. It's kind of been a 
document

[[Page H5047]]

that's been dead and buried for a long time. People say the United 
States Congress here is to be an equal branch of the United States 
Government, to be able to operate within a structure that recognizes 
that not every single decision gets made by one man sitting in a house 
up the street; that people go out to elections in record numbers like 
they did last November and they should think, rightfully so, that what 
they say and the votes they cast are going to have some impact on what 
happens down there.
  And I understand that the President's version of working together is 
us agreeing with whatever he asks us to agree with, but that's not what 
the American people sent us here to do. I certainly didn't get sent 
here to do this as a new Member, and the sooner that we recognize that 
you have a Congress for the first time in a long time that is going to 
stand up and speak for the people that sent us here, the sooner that 
happens the better.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I appreciate it, and you're absolutely right.
  And we have got an obligation to do that, and the ramifications of 
this war are being felt all over. And one of the regrets that we have 
had is that we continue to run up this huge budget deficit in order to 
pay for the war. And it's time for us to start challenging those people 
who have been doing well, those people that this primarily has been the 
burden of this war, has primarily been the responsibility of those 
families and those soldiers who have been fighting in it, and the 
burden that they have faced has been much greater than anyone had 
anticipated. And so I think it's important for us to also recognize in 
our supplemental bill what we have been able to do and what we have 
tried to do with some of this additional money.
  Almost $2 billion for defense health care for those soldiers who are 
serving their country currently, that we put an extra couple billion 
dollars in there above the President's request to deal with the health 
care issue for those who are serving their country right now in this 
most dangerous time.
  We also added an almost additional $2 billion for veterans health 
care and made sure that we are taking care of our veterans when they 
come back. We are going to see a tremendous surge in veterans health 
care when these soldiers get back home, and we want to make sure that 
they have the resources necessary to do that.
  We don't want this to be a country that promises you before you go to 
war all kinds of Cadillac coverage and then when you get back you're 
left on your own. The Democratic Party had attempted to fix that 
through the supplemental process, and again, that bill was vetoed.
  $500 million in there for post-traumatic stress disorder, which is 
going to be a huge problem given the kind of environment that these 
kids are fighting in.
  $500 million in there for brain injuries, again a major problem with 
those soldiers who are coming back injured.
  We're trying to take care of our veterans, and we're doing a good 
job, but we keep getting this process and these bills vetoed by the 
President of the United States, and it is very important that we begin 
to recognize that this can no longer be a stumbling block.
  In addition to that, Mr. Speaker, the Democratic-led Congress, in our 
budget authorization bill several weeks ago, put in there the largest 
increase for veterans spending in the history of the veterans 
administration. We are trying to take care of our veterans, and we are 
doing it in spite of what the President is trying to do by consistently 
vetoing our bills.

                              {time}  2000

  We are putting the money forward, we are asking for some 
accountability, we are taking care of our veterans, we are taking care 
of our soldiers, we are making sure that they don't leave to go over to 
Iraq without the proper body armor, the proper Humvee, up-armored 
Humvees, and the proper amount of rest.
  Our soldiers are getting worn out by continuously extending their 
tours, by sending them back second, third, fourth tours, their families 
are having problems, high divorce rates. We are seeing it all over. 
It's time for us to refocus.
  Then, when you look at who else is being affected by this situation 
that we have in Iraq, you are also seeing the issue with the National 
Guard readiness. We have seen, unfortunately, over the last couple of 
weeks, because of the natural disasters and the tornados, especially in 
places like Kansas, where the National Guard does not have the 
equipment, in many instances they don't have the manpower to try to 
deal with the issues that they are facing in their own State. There are 
so many issues that are being affected.
  Let me just share with you some of these problems that we have and 
what we are trying to do to address that. We put in, in the last 
supplemental bill, $2 billion not requested by the President for a new 
strategic reserve readiness fund, of which $1 billion is for Army 
National Guard equipment shortfalls. We are trying to address it.
  The President vetoed that too. So bad enough you are vetoing health 
care for our soldiers, you are vetoing health care for our veterans to 
the tune of $2 billion; you are vetoing veterans health care for post-
traumatic stress disorder; you are vetoing health care for those 
soldiers who come back with brain injuries. You are also vetoing an 
extra $1 billion for Army National Guard equipment.
  I mean, come on. We are trying to move this process forward. You 
know, it's a typical D.C. move, that if it's not your idea, we are 
against it. You know, if I didn't come up with it, I'm against it. That 
has been the President's attitude. We can't have it, because it's not 
us that is suffering; we are in air conditioned quarters. We got 
offices, cars, nice meals, you know. Our families are here with us.
  It's the soldiers who are suffering, and their families who are 
suffering, bearing the brunt of this war.
  This is Lieutenant General Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard 
Bureau: ``The Governors are rightly concerned that while the personnel 
part of the Guard has never been better, never been more ready, the 
equipment piece to the National Guard back here at home has never been 
less ready, and they are trying to resolve that obvious disconnect. The 
message is clear what we have, and the budget does not produce the 
level of readiness that they feel comfortable with.''
  Just being admitted. That's being admitted by the chief of the 
National Guard Bureau. This is the Government Accountability Office 
report from 2007, just a couple of months ago in January. This is a 
nonpartisan bureau that we have here: ``The high use of the National 
Guard for Federal overseas missions has reduced equipment available for 
its State-led domestic missions. At the same time it faces an expanded 
array of threats at home.''
  Reduced equipment available for our National Guard; our soldiers, not 
having the proper body armor; our Humvees not properly up-armored; our 
soldiers not getting the proper rest; our veterans not getting the kind 
of health care that they deserve; our defense, our soldiers in the 
Defense Department, not getting the level of health care and attention 
that they need and that they deserve; and an American public that wants 
this war to be over. Sixty percent say that it was a mistake to go in 
the first place.
  We have an obligation to respectfully and orderly wind this war down 
and begin a surge of diplomacy in the Middle East, asking our neighbors 
in the Middle East, asking the United Nations to take part in a peace-
keeping effort in Iraq, making sure that our soldiers are there and the 
periphery, a certain number, to make sure that we are still in the 
region to a certain extent to protect against some kind of Iranian 
influence.
  I yield to my good friend, who I know has been very busy tonight. 
Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to honor your 
commitments.
  I yield to my good friend from Florida.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, it's always good to be on the floor 
with you. It's like old times, like the 108th Congress, Tim Ryan from 
Niles, Ohio, and Kendrick Meek from Miami/Liberty City, Florida.
  The good thing I like about doing the work, we are working not only 
with new Members that appeared in the last Congress, but we have a 
level of consistency, even in the majority. Mr. Ryan serves on the very 
powerful Appropriations Committee. I serve on a

[[Page H5048]]

committee called the Ways and Means Committee and Armed Services. These 
are just committees that have an awful lot of work, and there is a lot 
to do.
  But we are here tonight because it's very, very important to the 
country. I don't have a family member in Iraq. I don't have a family 
member on their way to Iraq, but I do have constituents that fall 
within that circle of individuals.
  As we move this conference report, hopefully, it will go through the 
conference session that's going on to the President, and that the 
President doesn't veto this bill. Now, I am going to say this, because 
one may say politically, you probably wanted the President to do it, 
because he will go down further in the polls. It's not about polls, as 
far as I am concerned. It's about accountability to the men and women 
in harm's way.
  One may think, well, this has nothing really to do with me. We have a 
volunteer Armed Forces, and they have signed up and they knew full 
well, some of them knew full well they would be deployed. We have 
Reservists signed up. Some of them knew this threat would come one day 
that they would have to be deployed on a third and fourth tour. You 
have National Guard men and women that signed up, they were going to be 
federalized. They had to know they would be federalized at some point 
to go out and fight on behalf of the country.
  I just would like to make this point that if one may feel that this 
has nothing to do with your immediate family, you have to think about 
what the war in Iraq is doing to our country right now, our financial 
standing, our financial security. We have an administration in the last 
Congress, which was the rubber stamp Republican Congress, that passed 
everything that the Bush White House called for and asked for. 
Billionaires received tax cuts that they didn't even see coming, but it 
was a gift to them from the Bush administration.
  Now, we have borrowed more from foreign nations than we ever borrowed 
in the history of the Republic. I am from Florida. For those of you who 
are Members from Gulf States and along the eastern seaboard, this is 
your issue. Even those from the Midwest or even from the west coast, 
this is your issue, making sure that we have the benchmarks in place, 
making sure that we have the accountability in place, when you look at 
the dollars we are spending, how about the billions of dollars, 
trillions of dollars we are spending on this war. It's your issue. To 
the small-town mayor, to the big-city mayor, to the county 
commissioner, or parish or State legislature, this is your issue.

  Some folks said, well, in Washington, you all talk about Iraq, Iraq 
and Iraq again, and then that other issue, Iraq. The reason why on this 
floor Iraq is uttered every day, almost once an hour, two or three 
times an hour, is how can we deal with a national health care plan for 
children? How can we deal with an issue as it relates to helping small 
businesses? How can we prepare ourselves to take on the wave of veteran 
affairs that we have to take responsibility for, because we promise our 
veterans that we will stand with them because they stood with us?
  How can we do all of those things when we are carrying on the back an 
Iraqi Government that I must add is looking at going on a 2-month 
vacation, and the majority members of the Iraqi Parliament have already 
said they want a timeline on when U.S. troops are going to be out of 
Iraq.
  When you hear things about building a wall in Iraq, when you hear the 
reports over the weekend, Mother's Day weekend, as we were celebrating 
Mother's Day weekend, including myself, on honoring our mothers, my 
mother and my wife and all, we have to hear the report about our men 
and women on patrol in Iraq hit by an improvised explosive device as 
they patrolled at 4-something in the morning, and an Iraqi response 
team from our military showed up, 40 minutes after that event, and come 
to find a burning Humvee, burning, and those that died in that 
explosion, and three of our men that we are still combing the streets 
of Iraq for right now, along with coalition forces.
  These are the very things that we talk about in this bill. We talk 
about not only the human loss, and, since when I always come to the 
floor, I just want to say that as of May 15 at 10 a.m., which is the 
latest, 10 a.m. report, death toll is up 3,393; wounded in action and 
returned to duty is 13,975; wounded in action and not returned to duty 
is 11,270. That number continues to go up.
  It's very, very important. We pay very close attention to this. So 
when we have the legislation to make sure the troops have what they 
need, make sure that our veterans have what they need, making sure we 
respond to the work that was not done in the last two Congresses, we 
deal with what happened in the Gulf States in Katrina, doing right by 
them, doing right by their children, that their health insurance is 
about to expire, the very children of our country.
  Just today I was on the steps talking to an elementary school, 
Phyllis Ruth Miller Elementary School, in my district. I was talking to 
over 100 kids that are elementary kids and some of their teachers. They 
were asking about Iraq, and they were asking about the war. They were 
concerned, and one of the young men asked, well, Congressman, do you 
believe when I get of the age that, you know, I would love to be a 
member, I would love to be a soldier, a member of the Army, do you 
think I will be deployed to Iraq?
  I had to have a discussion with him about how we are trying to work 
in a diplomatic way. We want a surge in diplomacy. We want a surge as 
it relates to an escalation and other countries taking part in what we 
are doing.
  If it's about, you know, dropping bombs and all of that, we can do 
that better than anyone else on the face of the Earth. But when you 
start putting our men and women into responsibilities when a country 
should take responsibilities for themselves, then we are talking about 
another thing.
  I think it's also important for us to note that the bouncing ball as 
it relates to what the President says and what he means are two 
different things. One minute we listen to the commanders in the field. 
The next minute we know what's good for the commanders. One minute we 
say that if the Iraqi Government, and I just happened, I asked staff to 
pull this up, when the President was asked, and he said, But asked if, 
as a matter of principle, the United States would pull out of Iraq at 
the request of a new (Iraqi) Government,'' he said, this is a question 
that was posed to him, `` Absolutely. This is a sovereign government.''
  The elected Parliament, a majority of the elected Parliament have 
said they want a timeline. Now, in Congress we are saying we want a 
timeline, and we want benchmarks. The President is saying, I am not 
going to allow you to do it. We have a Republican minority saying we 
are standing next to the President. Then we had 11 Members of the 
Republican side go talk to the President and say, hey, you know 
something, we can only stand in for so long.
  Now, if I was thinking in political terms and thinking about serving 
on the committees I am serving on and staying in the majority and being 
a part of leadership meetings and so on and so on, I would say, fine. 
Let the Republican minority stick with the President. Let the 
President, let's just sit back, let's be quiet. Let's just let the 
President talk because as far as I am concerned politically, the gain 
is going to be to Democrats in Washington, D.C.
  But if it wasn't war, if it wasn't the future of our children and our 
children's children, if it wasn't the amount of debt that has been 
accumulated with two wars going on and tax cuts that no one asked for, 
and the super, super wealthy are getting tax cuts, subsidies, the oil 
companies that Mr. Ryan tried to address in the first wave of 
alternative energy and alternative fuel.
  I am a little glad to see the President talk about an energy plan 
yesterday, and take our dependency off of foreign oil or energy and 
focus on America. I am so glad that the President has caught up with 
the American people and the Democratic Congress and moving in that 
direction. We have already done that.
  So the real issue here is if we just pay attention to what people are 
saying, I think that we can figure out why they are doing what they are 
doing. The President, yes, he is going to be President, his term will 
be up in 2008. We want to support the Commander in Chief as far as we 
can.

[[Page H5049]]

  But as a democracy, as a Congress, we owe it to the people of the 
United States of America to continue to get good and accurate 
information out to them and to make sure that every Member of Congress 
knows exactly what he or she is voting on or not voting on.
  You heard me say before, it's important that Members of the Congress 
on both sides of the aisle, that we go see the wizard, that we get a 
little leadership, get a little courage, okay? Go to the President and 
say, hey, listen, this is the way it's going to be. This is not going 
away. The American people are on the side of what's good for America. 
They are not necessarily saying, you know, we love Democrats or we love 
Republicans. They just want good government, and good government is 
making sure we have responsibilities.
  Mayors come and speak with me. I had a city commissioner come talk 
with me today. She was sharing with me about, you know, all of the 
things that she has to go through to get a Federal grant.

                              {time}  2015

  Well, I don't hear the Iraqi Government talking about all the things 
and the loopholes and accountability measures they have to go through 
to get the taxpayer dollar. And I think it's important that we pay 
very, very close attention to that as we move through.
  Let me just speak one more second, Mr. Ryan, not one more second, but 
several seconds.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Take your time.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Thank you, sir.
  I mentioned earlier, I'm from Florida. June 1 is a very important 
date to those of us that are in Hurricane Alley. June 1 is the 
beginning of hurricane season. Hurricane season will be, this hurricane 
season has been predicted, Mr. Speaker, to be one of the most active 
seasons in recent time. And Florida is probably the most prepared State 
as it relates to response because we've gone through it so much. And 
the reason why we're able to respond to a number of natural disasters 
and hurricanes, which we have a number of wild fires that are going on 
right now in Florida, is that we have one of the best National Guard 
units on the face of the Earth, period. But 53 percent of the diesel or 
used equipment that they had to respond to storms, because they're the 
first responders, they're already staging outside of the hurricane zone 
to respond as first responders. They don't even have the equipment that 
they need to respond.
  In Kansas, Mr. Ryan, the Governor of Kansas said, you know, our 
emergency management plan called for a response from the National 
Guard. Those that are still left in the State of Kansas, but, they're 
having to use their personal vehicles. They're having to do other 
things to make up for the equipment that's jammed with sand over in 
Iraq.
  We must have accountability now. We must have benchmarks now. It's 
almost saying to school age children that it's okay, you can go to 
school, we won't grade you on anything. There'll never be a test. You 
just, you know, do your time and everything will work out.
  Everything that we strive for to be successful in, even in business 
or in government, you have to have benchmarks. You have to have 
accountability. And what the President and some of the Members of the 
minority side of the aisle, some of them, not all of them, I must add 
because I know that there are a number of my Republican colleagues that 
are saying we're headed down the right track and they have voted in the 
affirmative, in a bipartisan vote to send that message to the White 
House.
  And what the President hasn't come to grips with, including some 
members of his Cabinet, that this is a democracy, and guess what, the 
whole cake and ice cream thing, you write it, we just follow you kind 
of thing is over. It's over. The people of America voted for 
accountability. They voted for standards. They voted for transparency, 
and they're going to get it as long as we have the majority here in 
this Congress to give the American people what they ask for. That's 
what their vote is all about.
  I think it's also important for us to realize that when you look at 
these States, and this is just Florida, the National Guard was down 500 
Humvees, 600 trucks, short 4,000 pair of night vision goggles, and 
needed 30 more wreckers. This is from Colonel Ron Title, who is brass 
in our Florida National Guard. He's not talking on behalf of the 
Democratic Party or Republican Party. Here's a man that said, I'm going 
to serve in the Florida National Guard, and I'm just talking about 
preparedness. I'm talking about our ability to be able to respond to a 
natural disaster.
  What are we going to do, turn around and call Georgia? I'm pretty 
sure Georgia has some of the same issues.
  Turn around and call Alabama? Alabama, last I checked, there are a 
lot of National Guard men and women there, and I guarantee you their 
equipment, if not more in Iraq, they don't have the ability to come to 
Florida.
  And so when you look at these other States and the response of the 
National Guard, then you have to get active duty troops involved and 
you have to fly things in and carry on. If we had accountability in 
place, and we had proper planning in place, that's what this bill calls 
for.
  Mr. Ryan, this is the last money for Iraq and Afghanistan that will 
not go through the regular budget process because, Mr. Speaker, when 
that happens, accountability is paramount. Transparency hearings, 
everything is accounted for. Not just giving a checkbook to someone in 
Iraq and say, well, in the early days, giving them cash and just say go 
to work. That's not good accounting practices and should not be 
encouraged.
  And so the old saying, if we know better, we'll do better, well, you 
know, by now, 5 years in the war, we should all know better. And we're 
trying to do better.
  We have a majority in place right now, Mr. Ryan and Members, that are 
willing to do better, have the will and the desire to do it. The good 
thing that I like about, I was listening to what you were saying before 
I was recognized. Mr. Ryan, I remember the days that we were on the 
floor and we used to talk about if we had the opportunity, this is what 
we'll do. We'll make sure that veterans have what they need to have 
when they return back, and those that have served in past wars, that we 
honor their commitment by honoring them, making sure that they have a 
VA health care system they can be proud of.
  We said that we would work to make sure that children have health 
care in this country, and we've already taken action on that.
  We said that we would implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations. 
We have already done that. Waiting on the President's signature.
  We said that we would put rules in place within the House rules to 
bring about ethics and have an active ethics committee, which has 
already happened, Mr. Speaker. It's not something that we said, well, 
if we get around to it. It's already happened.
  So when we talk about the functions of good government, those 
principles are already in place. And so now we just need the help of 
the President of the United States to work with the Congress and not 
dictate to the Congress about what we should be doing, how we should be 
doing it. He's had 5 years. He's had 5 years to say, this is the way 
it's going to be. So shall it be written, so shall it be done.
  And I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, and being a Member of the past two 
Congresses, serving, Mr. Ryan and I served on the Armed Services 
Committee. We don't want to leave our men and women without equipment 
and the things that they need. And supplementals in the past, I didn't 
like a lot of the language in it, but I voted for it for the greater 
good, for the greater good.
  And we counted on the Defense Department to be accountable with the 
money. We counted on all of the things that we're being told about the 
equipment being on the ground when the men and women get there. Now we 
find out that some of that was not true, a lot of that was not true. 
And there's been so many things that have been told and so many 
apologies that have been sent out in press releases.
  Those days are over. We must have accountability in place. So when 
the President, if the President follows through on his threat, Mr. 
Ryan, to veto it, I'm glad that you talked about the things that he 
will veto; that he's going to deny the men and women in harm's way. 
He's going to deny children to have health care. He's going to

[[Page H5050]]

deny veterans from getting the veterans services that they deserve, and 
he's going to deny us being able to hold our head up.

  But I'm going to hold my head up because I'm doing my part and I'm 
doing my part right now on Memorial Day when we commemorate those that 
paid the ultimate sacrifice. And vetoing the largest increase in the VA 
history.
  I'm just talking about a few things, leave alone the accountability 
measures at the Department of Defense. They already had the rules in 
place. They just weren't honoring those rules. We put it in the 
supplemental, this emergency supplemental. So now, within this law and 
within the dollars that will be flowing into the field and throughout 
America, they're going to have accountability measures in it.
  So I'm not talking about what the Republican Congress did not do or 
what they call themselves doing, or what the President did not do or 
called himself doing. I'm just talking about what we're doing now and 
the opportunity that's presented before us. And I'm so happy, Mr. Ryan, 
that we are moving in that direction. I yield back to you, sir.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Well, I appreciate you coming down and articulating 
that. And it's been consistent since we've gotten in with the first 100 
hours as to what we're doing now, what we plan on doing, what we've 
passed out of this House, what we've passed out of this House sometimes 
on several different occasions.
  And if you look at the two major supplemental votes, you look at, you 
know, what did we do in the first one is we put timelines in there, 
deadlines in there, date certain we're going to get out of there.
  And you stated, I think, so articulately, that the Iraqi soldiers, if 
they know we're going to be there, then they're going to continue to 
rely on us. And if you leave the training wheels on the bike, you're 
never going to learn how to ride on two wheels. And it's time to take 
the training wheels off, Mr. Meek.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, I don't remember the last story of a 
state that continued to receive money, have not been accountable to 
Federal dollars, I mean, haven't been accountable in spending those 
Federal dollars. News report comes out that it actually took place, and 
then we turn around and say, oh, well, we know you didn't spend the 
last billions of dollars we gave you. We're going to give you some 
more. As a matter of fact, we're going to come down and help you spend 
this money, and we're going to come down and be a part of this lack of 
accountability by your government. And then we're going to reward you 
with another emergency supplemental that has no strings attached.
  You can't reward bad behavior or lack thereof. You cannot say, well, 
it's okay, Governor. It's okay, mayor. It's okay, county commission or 
city commission. If you're not accountable with the dollars, we're 
going to continue to send it to you.
  I don't know a police department that received Federal assistance 
from FEMA, okay, who did not do, did not follow the plan of hiring and 
training and making sure that they can patrol their own streets, and we 
sent Federal law enforcement individuals down there to do the everyday 
calls for service. That doesn't happen in America. It should not happen 
in Iraq as long as our taxpayer dollars are being spent, and dollars 
that we've borrowed, Mr. Ryan, I must add, from foreign nations.
  This country is in a financial situation as it relates to borrowing 
from foreign nations unlike any other time in the history of the 
Republic. So as we move in this majority body here to correct those 
issues, this is a wonderful opportunity for this government to correct 
itself on the legislative branch and the executive branch, to do the 
right thing, to be accountable for the taxpayer dollars, and, Mr. Ryan, 
the dollars that we've borrowed from other countries, that we have to 
figure out how we're going to pay them back, and at the same time 
continue to maintain some sort of financial standing within the world.
  Mr. Ryan, it's always a pleasure, sir, coming to the floor and 
working with you and other members of the 30-something Working Group. I 
know we'll be back a couple of other times this week before we finish 
on Friday.
  But we have to stay the course. I'm going to use one of the 
administration's words; stay the course on behalf of those who stood 
for us to be able to talk here in this air conditioned Chamber, 
saluting one flag. We have to stand up for those who have sent us here 
to represent them. And there are people who can vote. There are people 
who cannot vote. They're Republican. They're Democrats. They're 
independents. The individuals that are watching what happens now, 
because as we look back 20 years from now, folks are going to ask, who 
stood up? Who stood up for them? Who stood up for their children? Who 
stood up for their grandchildren?
  It's not about my family. It's about all of our families. If you want 
to talk about family values, then let's start doing things on behalf of 
the American people, and let's make sure that future generations have a 
better opportunity than we have.
  When that kid asked me on the steps of the Capitol, Mr. Congressman, 
I want to join the Army; I want to be a soldier. Am I going to war? 
That answer shouldn't have been diplomacy and all that. It should have 
been, we're doing our job and working with the international community 
and keeping America safe and, yes, if you want to go into the Army, you 
should go into the Army and serve our country like so many others have 
done.
  But it's a sad commentary when we're here debating the obvious of 
what we have to do. Accountability with the taxpayer dollars and 
accountability to those who woke up hearing mortar, hearing improvised 
explosive devices going off, looking at these vehicles towed in from 
the streets of Baghdad because we're doing the job that the Iraqi 
Government should be doing. And we have to stay the course, and making 
sure that we stand up for those that don't have the opportunity to walk 
through this door and put their voting card in these machines and vote 
on behalf of their future and their families.

                              {time}  2030

  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I appreciate it.
  Use www.Speaker.Gov to access our Web site. E-mail 
[email protected].
  Mr. Meek, as always, it is an honor, a pleasure, and a privilege to 
just share this floor with you, my friend.

                          ____________________