[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23618]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               CALL FOR A PARTNERSHIP IN REBUILDING IRAQ

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, Operation Iraqi Freedom has been a historic 
success, a military victory of astonishing proportions in its 
decisiveness as well as its compassion on the civilian population. In 
the next 2 weeks, the President of the United States has come to 
Congress to ask for some $87 billion to continue the work, and well we 
should. Extending every dollar to make sure our troops have the 
resources they need to get the job done and come home safe should be 
Congress' top priority. But with regard to the investment in civil 
society, the reconstruction dollars, some $20.3 billion, I rise 
respectfully, Mr. Speaker, to say that we should ask the people of Iraq 
and their future generations to partner with us, to structure 
reconstruction dollars as a loan, and give the Iraqi people the 
opportunity to invest along with us in their own peace and stability 
and democracy as full partners in their future.

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