[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 77 (Wednesday, May 21, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H4693]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       A CALL FOR A VOTE REGARDING ENDING THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

  (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, last night in the Rules Committee, we 
witnessed the very definition of political cowardice. For the second 
time in 3 years, the Republican leadership of this House refused to 
make a thoughtful, germane, and bipartisan amendment on Afghanistan in 
order to the defense authorization bill.
  The rule we will debate later today makes in order 162 amendments--
162. There were amendments on everything from deferred retirement for 
military chaplains to charging admission to air shows and to ensuring 
public access to Rattlesnake Mountain.
  But we can't have a debate and a vote on holding the administration 
accountable for ending the war in Afghanistan?
  Because we are at war, Mr. Speaker. I know that we don't like to talk 
about it around here, and I know that some of my colleagues would 
rather bury their heads in the sand and hope it goes away, but our 
troops and their families deserve a debate, and Congress has the 
responsibility to give it to them.
  But no. But no. I don't know what the Republican leadership is afraid 
of, but this is outrageous, and I am not going to stand for it.

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