[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 18]
[House]
[Pages 25355-25356]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       LETTERS FROM CONSTITUENTS

  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, back in 1838, the conservative 
leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives passed a rule 
prohibiting the discussion of slavery, essentially banning

[[Page 25356]]

the debate of slavery in this body, which was the largest blot on our 
national heritage. For 4 years, people were not allowed to debate the 
issue of slavery on the floor of the House of Representatives.
  Former President, then Congressman John Quincy Adams, night after 
night, day after day, week after week, came to the House floor, and not 
being able to debate slavery, he read letters from his constituents, 
most of them women, who could not vote in those days in the middle of 
the 19th century. So he read letters from his constituents protesting 
government policy on slavery.
  Today, we have seen in this body the continued suppression of debate 
on whether or not the Bush administration told the truth about Iraq, a 
continuation of disallowing of amendments that would have provided and 
supplied for our soldiers better than they have been, and that the 
military is able to, and so, as a result, Mr. Speaker, today I want to 
read letters from my constituents about some of those issues.
  Sharyn from Fairlawn, Ohio, writes: No to $87 billion to Iraq. Yes to 
education that has suffered under President Bush. Yes for the creation 
of jobs that have suffered under Bush. Yes for giving financial aid to 
the small business manufacturing industry that has suffered to the 
point of near extinction. Let us get our country back.
  Sharyn of Fairlawn, Ohio, was talking about the fact that we have 
lost 3\1/2\ million jobs since President Bush took office. In my State 
of Ohio, one out of every seven manufacturing jobs has disappeared, 
much of it because of bad trade agreements, and much of it because of 
Bush economic policies. One out of seven jobs has disappeared.
  Erica, from Clinton, Ohio, writes: To continue writing blank checks 
to the team responsible for the deplorable mess in Iraq is throwing 
good money after bad. With the current team overseeing the 
reconstruction of Iraq, there will be no end in sight to further 
demands for additional monies. Keep large corporations from making 
important decisions in Iraq.
  What Erica from Clinton, Ohio, is talking about is the fact that the 
Halliburton corporation and many other companies have received large, 
unbid contracts from President Bush and from the Pentagon to rebuild 
Iraq. It is the same company, Halliburton, which still is paying its 
former CEO, present Vice President of the United States, Richard 
Cheney, still paying Vice President Cheney $13,000 every month.
  So we have Halliburton, which has gotten literally billions of 
dollars in contracts, many of them unbid gifts from taxpayers, unbid 
contracts. Hundreds of millions of dollars in unbid contracts, billions 
of dollars overall. Halliburton has gotten this money and much of it is 
not accounted for. Yet the Vice President of the United States is still 
receiving $13,000 a month from this company, not to mention Bechtel and 
other corporations, most of which are friends of the President and 
major contributors of the George Bush reelection campaign.
  Celia from Strongsville writes: No more money should be allocated for 
Iraq until we make Bush's administration accountable for it and tell us 
what he is doing with it.
  Again, she is talking about Halliburton, the $13,000 a month to Vice 
President Cheney, and all the money unaccounted for going to these 
large corporations which are major contributors to the President.
  Celia continues to write: You cannot cut taxes and continue to 
increase spending without bankrupting the next generation in this 
country. When Congress appropriated $87 billion last week, at the 
President's demand, understand every one of those $87 billion was 
borrowed money from the next generation.
  Celia then closes by saying: I used to think Republicans were more 
fiscally responsible than Democrats. I know that is not true any more.
  Jack from Strongsville, Ohio, writes: Enough is enough. Let us stop 
losing American lives and get back to saving our country.
  Ed from Strongsville, Ohio, writes: We seem to have no money for 
anything other than defense initiatives. The Iraq war has totally 
distracted us from the real issues of terrorism and from our domestic 
economic agenda.
  What Ed from Strongsville is talking about is the President and the 
administration have lost sight of going after Osama bin Laden, lost 
sight of going after al Qaeda, lost sight of protecting us at home, 
lost sight of spending money on our security at home, from jobs to 
homeland security, and, instead, has gone into another country and is 
spending these untold billions on reconstructing Iraq.
  Ed concludes by saying: It is time for a constructive effort to 
fiscal responsibility.
  Mr. Speaker, many of us have received hundreds, thousands of letters 
from our constituents upset about this policy and they want some 
direction. They want no more corruption in Iraq.

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