[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9885-9886]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           PASS A CLEAN BILL

  (Mrs. BLACKBURN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam Speaker, the liberal leadership of this 
Congress put the lives of our soldiers in the field in a very 
difficult, very difficult position. When they passed the supplemental 
bill earlier this month, they loaded it up with pork. Actually, the 
bill sounds more like a shopping list. There is money for spinach and 
for fish and for peanut storage. A lot of pork, and it is something 
that does not do a service to our military.
  But what the leadership did was to make an offer that couldn't be 
refused to a lot of Members. They claim to support the military, but in 
the bill what they are doing is tying the hands of the military by 
inserting a timetable for withdrawal and taking the power away from the 
commanders in the field. Majority Senate leader Harry Reid didn't

[[Page 9886]]

help when he considered that the war was lost. That is the message that 
he is sending to our troops and to the terrorists alike, that everybody 
ought to give up.
  American citizens need to ask themselves, is defeat an option? What 
would happen if we were to leave?
  What we need to do is let the soldiers do their jobs, us do ours, 
pass a clean bill, and send it to the President.

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