[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 18]
[House]
[Pages 24263-24264]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, 165 years ago, conservatives in this 
House of Representatives passed a rule banning the discussion and 
debate of slavery in the United States House of Representatives. In 
those days, former President, then Congressman, John Quincy Adams, 
trooped to the House floor night after night, week after week, 
protesting that the issues of slavery were not being debated, and he 
then shared letters from his constituents, many of them women who could 
not vote, so that Members of Congress and the American people would 
learn more about why he believed slavery should be abolished.
  In like manner today, Mr. Speaker, conservative leadership in this 
House of Representatives has not really allowed full debate on whether 
or not the Bush administration told us the truth on his reasons for 
taking us into Iraq; whether leaders in the Bush administration, all 
the way up and down, were actually leveling with the American people; 
whether and how the $87 billion the President has asked for should be 
spent, whether we should spend it. Questions and concerns about that 
$87 billion that the American people have raised are not being debated, 
and especially the concern that my constituents are expressing about 
the safety of our troops.
  And so similar to John Quincy Adams, Mr. Speaker, I have brought 
letters tonight from my constituents, as I have night after night since 
July, expressing the concerns of people in my district about whether or 
not the Bush administration told the truth, about the Halliburton 
connections with Vice President Cheney, the company that is getting 
literally hundreds of millions

[[Page 24264]]

of dollars in contracts, even though Vice President Cheney is receiving 
from that company still, sitting this close to the oval office, $13,000 
a month from Halliburton, and just concerns that people in my district 
have about all of this.
  Melissa, from Akron, writes: ``We truly need to change our course of 
action in Iraq. Mr. Rumsfeld's arrogant, bombastic, my-way-or-the-
highway way of thinking, speaking, and acting have put this country and 
our soldiers, especially our soldiers, in a precarious position, some 
ways worse than Vietnam. Our own country is falling apart: The energy 
grid, highway infrastructure, schools, health care, child care, 
industry, personal freedom, the environment, as well as employment. The 
money wasted on this fool's errand could have been used to rebuild this 
country, to find Osama bin Laden, to really deal with terrorism, not by 
providing Halliburton,'' the Vice President's company, that as I said 
is paying him $13,000 a month still, ``not by providing Halliburton 
with a steady income.''
  Jessica of Akron Ohio writes: ``The $87 billion President Bush has 
asked for could be spent in so many other ways that would benefit 
Americans directly. Manufacturing, education, and health care are just 
a few areas that have been put on the back burner since the 
administration has taken office.''
  What Jessica is referring to, surely, is the fact we have lost 3\1/2\ 
million jobs since President Bush took office, 2\1/2\ million 
manufacturing jobs. In Ohio, literally one out of every seven 
manufacturing jobs has vanished without any real response from the 
President.
  Howard from Akron writes: ``The Bush administration bungling in Iraq 
must be challenged. Before any more money is approved for this 
misadventure, Congress must insist on seeing a comprehensive plan, with 
time lines for restoring basic services, establishing home rule, and 
removing U.S. troops.''
  Howard's letter suggests what so many of these letters do; that 
people are concerned about the safety of the troops first, they want 
answers about where the $87 billion is going, how much of it is going 
to private contractors, like Halliburton and other unbid contracts, 
that happen to be to people who happen to be very good friends and 
often contributors of the President, and just when there is going to be 
a timetable to wrap this up in Iraq.

                              {time}  2100

  Liane and George from Avon write, ``Please don't give the President 
the added funds he requested. We need a guarantee that our troops are 
coming home and all rebuilding responsibility is transferred to the 
United Nations.''
  Evelyn of Akron writes, ``Please vote against giving the President 
$87 billion without his relinquishing part of the power to the U.N. and 
any countries that are willing to send troops and money to Iraq.''
  We have already spent $69 billion in Iraq, more than a billion 
dollars a week, an $87 billion request has come forward from the 
President, and we are not getting much help at all obviously from other 
nations in terms of troops or money, as Evelyn points out.
  Stephanie from Strongsville, Ohio writes, ``Millions of Americans are 
out of work and thousands more are laid off every day. State and county 
taxes are increasing to cover the cost of Mr. Bush's huge refund for 
the wealthy. And now Mr. Bush wants billions more to fund the disaster 
that he, Cheney and Rumsfeld created in Iraq?''
  Mr. Speaker, Stephanie is referring to the budget cuts and the tax 
increases that Ohio has done. I think people in my district and around 
the country are very concerned about the $87 billion.

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