[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 18]
[House]
[Pages 24374-24375]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    LETTERS FROM HOME REGARDING 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 the 
House of Representatives passed a rule to prohibit and ban the 
discussion of the debate of slavery in the House of Representatives. 
Then Congressman, former President, John Quincy Adams, strongly 
objecting to that policy passed by the conservatives that ran this 
House of Representatives, came to the floor night after night, week 
after week, disputing that rule and reading letters from his 
constituents, mostly women in Massachusetts, who could not vote, 
sharing letters from his constituents with the House of Representatives 
and with the American people protesting that prohibition on that 
debate.
  Today, the Congress is considering other very important legislation, 
other legislation and investigations, something the House of 
Representatives conservative leadership does not want to allow, and 
that is debate on how this $87 billion will be spent and accounted for, 
whether or not the Bush administration told the truth when leading this 
Congress and country into war with Iraq and how we are going to take 
care of the troops.
  I am again tonight, as I have night after night since late July, 
reading letters from my constituents, because conservative Republican 
leadership in this House will not allow us to debate these issues and 
will not do the investigation that the country and so many of my 
constituents are demanding. I am reading letters from them tonight 
about the troops, about the lack of accountability on the $87 billion 
and the

[[Page 24375]]

$1 billion a week we are already spending.
  Jane from Akron, Ohio, writes, ``Do not put good money after bad. I 
implore you to look at the U.S. servicemen and women in Iraq and 
Afghanistan and see that they are treated decently in terms of danger 
pay, education for their dependents and family support issues. The Bush 
administration is certainly not supporting the troops with decency and 
respect.''
  She is talking about some of the same things my friend the gentleman 
from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) just talked about.
  Evelyn from Akron, Ohio, writes, ``This administration has bankrupted 
the country. Please vote against the $87 billion unless the people 
responsible are held accountable.''
  She talks about, as many other letters have, the fact that we are 
spending $1 billion a week in Iraq. One-third of that money has gone to 
private contractors, many of them unbid contracts. The largest contract 
has gone to the Halliburton company, which Vice President Dick Cheney 
was CEO of until he was running for Vice President, and she and others 
talk about the fact that Mr. Cheney is still receiving $13,000 every 
month from Halliburton, as Halliburton is receiving hundreds of 
millions in unbid contracts, hundreds of millions of our tax dollars.
  Wes of Strongsville, Ohio, writes, ``It is beyond belief that this 
administration has gone so long, nearly 5 months since the `end of 
major combat,' without a plan on accomplishing its initial goals in 
Iraq and keeping our soldiers from another quagmire.''
  Wesley of Bath, Ohio, writes, ``I am very sad that George Bush and 
his staff, including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice, 
apparently misled us when taking us to war. We need to publicly 
investigate how the public was misled about the reasons for going into 
this war. If the President and his people are culpable, they should be 
let go.''
  Betty from Akron, Ohio, writes, ``We need to end the U.S. occupation 
of Iraq and give authority for rebuilding to the United Nations. No 
more money from Congress until there is a change.''
  She and others have suggested that President Bush bring in more 
United Nations troops, more United Nations financial support, something 
the President has been unable to do, in large part because many around 
the world, as in this country, have not really believed that the 
President has told us the truth, and so many of our countrymen, so many 
of my constituents, have objected to this $1 billion a week with no 
accountability, especially when $13,000 every month is still going to 
the Vice President of the United States from a company that is getting 
millions of dollars in unbid contracts from the President of the United 
States.
  Shirley from Akron, Ohio, writes, ``We can no longer afford to go it 
alone in our nation-building in Iraq and still care for America's 
pressing social issues, most specifically, our children's education, 
health care and high unemployment from the loss of American jobs. The 
hubris of this administration's policies at home and abroad will cost 
America for decades to come. It must stop now.''
  She is talking about the President's tax cuts for the wealthiest 
citizens. The average millionaire gets a $93,000 tax cut, while the 
President has cut veterans' benefits, and he is not taking care of our 
troops in Iraq and the supplies they need. The President has cut 
education and health care benefits also.
  Claire from Strongsville, Ohio, writes, ``The level of debt increases 
daily as we keep reducing services for needy children. It can only get 
worse as we throw more money into the unjust Iraq war.''
  You can see, letter writer after letter writer, citizen after citizen 
in this country, have major concerns about the corruption, the 
unaccountability, the money the Vice President is still receiving and 
our whole war policy.

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