[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 52 (Wednesday, April 14, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H2556]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      NATION-BUILDING HERE AT HOME

  (Mr. McGOVERN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, after 8 long years, hundreds of billions 
of dollars of deficit spending and, most importantly, thousands of our 
brave soldiers killed or wounded, it is past time to reexamine our 
strategy in Afghanistan.
  Instead of nation-building in Afghanistan, I believe we should be 
doing some more nation-building here at home. The American people 
deserve accountability in terms of how and when our troops will be 
returned to their families and in terms of how taxpayer dollars are 
being spent.
  Today, Congressman Walter Jones and I introduced legislation that 
would require the President to provide a plan and a timetable for 
drawing down our forces in Afghanistan and to identify any variables 
that could require changes to that timetable. I should note that the 
bill does not set a specific date for withdrawal. The bill would 
safeguard U.S. taxpayer dollars by ensuring all U.S. activity in 
Afghanistan be overseen by the Inspector General.
  We must aggressively go after al Qaeda and its allies wherever they 
are, but I am not convinced that a long-term occupation of Afghanistan 
in support of a corrupt, incompetent government is in our best national 
security interests.
  I urge my colleagues to join us in this effort.

                          ____________________