[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3139]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  PRESIDENT BUSH UNDERESTIMATES NUMBER OF TROOPS AND AMOUNT OF MONEY 
                    NEEDED FOR TROOP ESCALATION PLAN

  (Mr. WALZ of Minnesota asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Madam Speaker, last week, the nonpartisan 
Congressional Budget Office released a report saying that President 
Bush is understating the number of troops and the amount of money 
needed to move forward with his troop escalation plan.
  While the President claims he plans to send 21,500 troops to Iraq, 
the Congressional Budget Office says the number will be as high as 
48,000. As any soldier like myself knows, that to put a combat unit on 
the ground you need substantial support forces, including personnel to 
staff headquarters, serve as military police, provide communications, 
provide mess facilities, engineering and other services.
  The Congressional Budget Office also said that the President has 
seriously underestimated the cost of troop escalation. While President 
Bush claims it should not cost any more than $5.6 billion, the 
Congressional Budget Office says a 4-month deployment will cost between 
$9 and $13 billion, 12 months between $20 and $27 billion. This is a 
400 percent underestimate.
  Madam Speaker, this is a serious report that cannot and will not be 
ignored. President Bush cannot expect Members of Congress to support 
his troop escalation plan when he is not telling us the whole story on 
the number of troops and the funds involved to make it happen.

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