[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7923]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            IRAQ BENCHMARKS

  (Mr. BRALEY of Iowa asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, when hundreds of billions of dollars 
of U.S. taxpayer money is being spent on a war overseas, it is 
important there be benchmarks and consequences if they are not met.
  Last week the House approved an emergency war supplemental that will 
finally hold the Iraqi Government accountable by measuring its 
performance on standards that President Bush himself outlined earlier 
this year.
  Under the plan passed here last week, the President must report to 
Congress this summer on the progress the Iraqi Government has made on 
these key benchmarks. If the Iraqi Government lives up to its promises, 
our troops will remain there until next year. If, however, they do not 
meet the President's own benchmarks by this summer, we will begin to 
redeploy our troops out of Iraq immediately. This accountability is 
particularly critical after the release of a Defense Department report 
showing that the Iraqi Government is not close to meeting any of these 
benchmarks.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time that the Iraqi Government realizes that the 
American troops are not going to be in Iraq indefinitely, and that they 
have to begin seriously taking responsibility for their own nation.

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