[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8551-8552]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  Mr. THOMAS. Madam President, I will take my 10 minutes this morning. 
I wanted to speak a little bit about the Iraq supplemental bill which 
is really the issue that is pending. We are not going to be able to get 
to it today, but nevertheless it is the pending unfinished business.
  Despite what the majority leader has indicated, it is too bad we have 
not been able to move this forward. The Senate went on Easter recess, 
of course. The majority stressed the importance of completing the bill 
before the end of March and getting it to the President without delay. 
Democrats in the Senate, of course, have blocked votes on the amendment 
to supplement the part that we could have--where they indicated they 
wanted to speed up the process. Regrettably, we are now on the 64th day 
since the President submitted his request to Congress, and we have 
still not sent up a bill.
  To make matters worse, we don't even have a conference committee in 
place to work out the differences between the bill that has been passed 
in the Senate and the bill that has been passed in the House. The 
Senate is ready for a conference for this bill. The committee of the 
conferees has been announced, and they are prepared to get this work 
done. On the other hand, the House of Representatives is on recess and 
no House conferees. So we are still held up, and will be, on the bill 
that is really important and needs to be moved. While our troops at 
home and overseas are facing funding uncertainties, the Democratic 
House leadership is taking a couple of weeks off. This makes it very 
difficult.
  We talked about what we are going to accomplish. It is interesting to 
accomplish it in the Senate, but it has to go through the House and the 
Senate and then to the President to have the impact the bill is 
supposed to have. The Speaker of the House should call the Members back 
to Washington to complete the supplemental bill and get it to the 
President by the end of the week. I would like to associate myself with 
the letter that was sent to the Speaker of the House asking her to call 
the body back to Washington.
  It is important to remind people that our troops did not take the 
week off. Our military leaders are in the best position to know the 
needs of our troops. They have left no doubt that the funding is urgent 
and needed without strings and pork.
  Last week, my staff met with General Mattis and General Lehnert of 
the U.S. Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton. For those of you who do not 
know General Mattis, he is a straight-shooter, my kind of marine. He 
offered a grim assessment of the barracks the marines will be returning 
home to. His report concluded that conditions are unacceptable for the 
marines and sailors who have just returned from the combat environment. 
Repairs and maintenance are needed. The service is ready to act. 
Unfortunately, the first items that will be cut when funding begins to 
dry up will be this maintenance. So, even though certainly we will have 
to get money to the troops, this delay will have an impact on the 
troops who are returning. More and more marines and their families will 
be seeking counseling, and there will be cuts in the counseling 
programs that are available for our returning service people. These 
programs may not be available if we do not move forward. Of course, as 
I said, it has been 64 days since the start of this issue. Certainly we 
need to take care of our marines' mental health and see to it that they 
are not living in dilapidated barracks and we are going to have to work 
hard to get this done. It is very simple. We can do that.
  Over the Easter break, I joined with others welcoming home the 
Wyoming Army National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 300th Field Artillery 
Unit. Let me tell you, to get these troops back home was one of the 
great events I have seen in a very long time. Like those who came home 
before them, I am so proud of their service and their sacrifices. Given 
the lack of passage of the supplemental that was submitted to Congress 
64 days ago, I am not sure their return would have happened if it had 
been scheduled for a few months from now.
  Our first and only priority should be the funding to our troops in 
the field. Unfortunately, the emergency legislation is larded up with 
pork and extraneous measures. Not only does the legislation attempt to 
tie the President's hands by micromanaging, but the majority is trying 
to push through pet projects at the expense of funding our troops.

[[Page 8552]]

  When the House does return and finally appoints conferees, I hope 
this Congress does the responsible thing and sends the President a 
clean bill. Our troops deserve that the Congress give them the funding 
they need to succeed.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Utah.

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