[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10870-10876]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Cohen). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Madam Speaker, it is an honor to come before the 
House once again, especially this evening.
  As you know, the 30-Something Working Group, we come to the floor to 
bring forth the truth on behalf of the American people, not just 
Independents or not just Democrats, not just Republicans, but on behalf 
of the American people.
  I am so glad to be joined once again by my good friend from Niles, 
Ohio, Mr. Tim Ryan, and I am always excited about being on the floor 
with him. I am excited by the fact that, Mr. Speaker, today that there 
was a conference report signed to support our men and women that are in 
harm's way in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in areas where they are staging to 
move into theater, one that brings about the equipment and support, 
going above and beyond what the President called for, but it also had 
benchmarks to bring about the kind of standards that the American 
people are crying out for.
  It happened today at 3 p.m., and I am very proud of not only the 
Speaker but Majority Leader Harry Reid over in the Senate, Senator 
Reid. I think it is also important for us to realize that in both 
chambers it passed by a bipartisan vote. I think it is also important 
to note that as soon as we were able to get that conference report 
signed, that the President, one of his first actions was to announce 
officially his veto of that legislation, saying tomorrow that Democrats 
and Republicans will come together at the White House to discuss where 
we can compromise.
  Let me just say this before I yield to Mr. Ryan. I understand that 
there is a discussion that is going on about who is right and who is 
wrong, but I think it is very, very important to understand especially 
on the date that Mr. Ryan is going to address in a minute, some 4 years 
ago, where there was a great announcement of accomplishment and now to 
continue to move on under that light of saying trust me, that 
everything is going to be okay, I think that those days are over. I am 
not saying they are over. The American people are saying they are over.
  One time here on the floor, Mr. Ryan went down a litany of things, 
and actually I was checking out some of your work on YouTube recently, 
and it had the one when you came and you said, forgive me for 
questioning what the President says or what the Republican majority at 
that time had to say about the fact of liberators and paying for the 
war and on and on and on.
  It continues, but the American people are now saying, Mr. Speaker, 
that we understand this Commander in Chief but we need the Congress to 
stand up and be the Congress, asking for accountability.
  So, with that, I know that we have a number of things to talk about 
here this evening, and we also have some fresh quotes from former brass 
because, of course, if you are enlisted or you are inside, you cannot 
speak truth to power or speak your mind. This information has just been 
released not only publicly but to those of us here in Congress. We want 
to share that with the Members.
  Also, I want to add that the death toll in Iraq is 3,351; wounded in 
action, returned to duty is up 13,875; and wounded in action and not 
returning to duty is 11,215. That is the latest at 10:00 a.m. today. As 
you know, when we come to the floor, we give that report of that 
information because I think the Members need to understand that this is 
not a political issue. This is a serious issue that is facing the 
country and also facing the men and women in uniform and their 
families.
  So I do know that the American people are, and a super majority of 
them are, 100 percent behind accountability and also oversight. I think 
it is important that we have that, and the President is asking for a 
blank check.
  The thing that I am disappointed about is that the President had an 
opportunity to share something great with the country about a dialogue, 
but he decided to misrepresent what is in the legislation. I think that 
as we continue to talk about this tonight, that we continue to share 
with the Members, because every time we take a vote, the vote gets 
greater on behalf of accountability. I am hoping that we can meter up 
enough on both sides of the aisle to make sure that we hang in there 
with the men and women in harm's way and those that may be placed in 
harm's way and not wince to the President on some sort of floating 
politics that is going on right now.
  I hope they have a true dialogue. I am not about the political part 
of this. I am about the action part of this and making sure that our 
men and women have what they need.
  Mr. Speaker, we have done what we said we would do: make sure that 
they are funded; make sure that they have the equipment that they need; 
make sure that the men and women that went over into harm's way, that 
the Department of Defense regulation as it relates to the downtime that 
they are supposed to have with their families, that they will have it 
and that if the Department of Defense was going to exit from that, then 
there has to be a reason why they were going to exit, for not holding 
their end of the deal when these men and women signed up as volunteers.
  So it is very, very important that those of us here in Congress make 
sure that within this democracy that many of these individuals are 
fighting for and making sure and those before them, the veterans, 
making sure we can salute one flag, that we honor them through our 
courage and integrity when it comes down to this very issue.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to Mr. Ryan.

                              {time}  1945

  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I appreciate that, and I think you are exactly 
right. There was a misrepresentation of the facts of the legislation 
that was put forth to the White House. I think it's important for us, 
for us to go over in a snapshot of what the supplemental bill did that 
the President just vetoed.
  What this bill did was increase by $1.7 billion the amount of money 
that was going to defense health care for the troops. What it did was 
it increased veterans spending by $1.7 billion above what the President 
wanted. We tried to make law the benchmarks that the President set up 
for progress in Iraq on January 10, his benchmarks, and he vetoed that.
  Now, the President is vetoing his own statements, if that is not 
confusing enough. The key component of this piece of legislation is the 
piece that says that our troops can't leave here and go to Iraq if they 
don't have the proper body armor, if they don't have the proper 
equipment, if they don't have Humvees that are up armored, and if they 
don't have the amount of rest that they need. That is what the 
President just vetoed.
  I think this is a pretty sad day in American history when you have 
the President of the United States trying to win a PR battle and using 
the troops as hostage. Those are not my words, those are the words of 
General Paul Eaton, who just said, after the statement, this is what he 
is saying on the President's veto, ``This administration and the 
previously Republican controlled legislature have been the most

[[Page 10871]]

caustic agents against America's Armed Forces in memory. Less than a 
year ago, the Republicans imposed great hardship on the Army and the 
Marine Corps by their failure to pass the necessary funding language. 
This time, the President of the United States is holding our Soldiers 
hostage to his ego. More than ever apparent, only the Army and the 
Marine Corps are at war--alone--without their President's support.''
  Terrorism around the globe is up 25 percent. Stop doing what you are 
doing to make terrorism increase by 25 percent. Enough of the scare 
tactics that if we don't fight them there, they are going to come here 
and get us. The same scare tactics that they have been trying to employ 
for the past 5 years, this is the same group of people who told us, as 
was stated earlier, that the oil money would be used for 
reconstruction, it would only cost $50 billion, and now we are upwards 
of some $500 and some billion after the 2008 budget, going to be 
greeted as liberators. All of the statements that have been made in the 
past 5 years have been wrong, colossal mistakes.
  The same people that said the mission was accomplished are the same 
people that are now telling us we don't want any timetables, we don't 
want any deadlines, we don't want any goals for when we maybe should 
possibly, at some point, get out of Iraq and redeploy out. We don't 
want any of that. They expect, after all these mistakes, all of these 
blunders, that somehow we are going to trust them.
  I am sorry, but you know what? Between now and when the President 
decides it's time to get out, how many more soldiers are we going to 
lose? How many more kids are we going to go up and see at Walter Reed 
who have brain injuries and post-traumatic stress?
  That's the difference between today and a year from now. That's the 
difference between a deadline and an open-ended war, kids getting 
killed and innocent Iraqis getting killed. You know, I think that this 
is the height of arrogance that this veto showed by the President.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Let me just add to what you just said. Members 
may be in their office watching, or walk here on the floor and say, 
what's Mr. Ryan and Mr. Meek talking about, like we are independent 
individuals that just come to the floor just to say that we are upset.
  I must say that a number of Americans live through the people they 
respect in government, be it Republican or Democrat. Sometimes they 
lead into this political process. People they get involved in 
government for different reasons. Some folks say I am going to latch on 
to this individual, or I am going to latch on to that individual. It 
might have been John F. Kennedy for someone else. It might have been 
Ronald Reagan for another lady, or whatever the case may be.
  It may be Speaker of the House, who knows. But they get involved in 
government for whatever reason. We got involved in government because 
we are the same folks that went and signed up at the supervisor of 
elections to run for office, because we wanted to do something about 
what was happening here in Washington D.C. and represent the people, 
not just Democrats, not just Republicans, not just independents, but 
the people, and those that are yet unborn.
  I think it's also important, when we start looking at these issues, 
we can just open today's Washington Post, May 1. This is May 1, and 
this is Tuesday. Front page, April, toll, is the highest of 2007 for 
U.S. troops, 100 U.S. troops in a month.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Can I interrupt you and just make a highlight? In 
the President's speech today he said that the incident levels are down.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I hear what you are saying.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I hear you too.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. What is so very important for everyone to 
understand here, that this is above and beyond politics right now. For 
the President to say, the President is making a political statement, he 
is making a political statement because he once said, as long as I am 
President, we are not going to pull back any troops from Iraq. Just 
because he made that statement doesn't necessarily mean that should be 
the case.
  We live in democracy, last I checked. No one stopped me walking down 
the street. No one kicked in my door, because I have rights. I think 
it's important that the President understands that we live in a 
democracy. So, really, in my opinion, it's hard to talk directly to the 
President about something when he has made a statement, and he has 
said, I am going to stick by it.
  This is not stick by your guns, you know, stick by whatever, however 
the song goes. It's not appropriate to use when you talk about the man, 
but it's stick by whatever statement you made. I think it's important 
that people understand that we are going to the table of compromise, 
which the President said we were going to compromise, he didn't sound 
like someone who really wanted to compromise in this statement at 6:10 
today.
  He sounded like a person saying I am going to veto this, and they can 
come to the hill and the bottom line is the Congress is trying to do 
this, this and this. That is not looking at compromise, that is looking 
at keeping some sort of word that he has made. If you want to talk 
about word, I think it's important.
  The good thing I like about the 30-Something working group members is 
the fact that the Congressional Record and past statements are so very, 
very important to today's reality.
  The President said, in his comments, that he didn't believe the time 
lines, and he spoke out very forcefully against them. Yet in 1990, on 
June 5, then Governor Bush said about President Clinton, I think it's 
important for the President to lay out a timetable as to how long they 
will be involved and when they will be withdrawn, talking about another 
conflict.
  It's good enough for President Clinton. It's not good enough for him. 
It's one thing for you, it's an old saying, it's one thing for you to 
ask somebody, you tell someone to do something when you are not willing 
to do it. I think it's important, after all of this death, after all of 
the conflict that is going on in Iraq, in the middle of the winter, in 
the middle of the civil war, the American people are crying out. If it 
was political, and men and women weren't losing their lives, and Walter 
Reed didn't get a plane load of injured soldiers and Marines and airmen 
and the Coast Guard and sailors, then I would say, well, let's play the 
political role.
  As far as I am concerned, when I talked to my friends on the 
Republican side of the aisle, I share with them, because I think there 
is some good Members that are there that want to speak their mind. When 
they see me in the hall or see in the cafeteria, they say, Kendrick, 
you know, you were on the floor the other day, you made a lot of sense.
  I say, why don't you vote differently. Why don't you vote in the 
emergency supplemental to send the troops the money? Because the more 
bipartisan votes we have, the harder it will be for the President to do 
what they are doing.
  Listen, to the Republican minority, you guys are on your way to a 
permanent minority in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate 
following the President on this issue of don't ask any questions, just 
give me a blank check. The American people, unelected a number of 
Republican Members of the House and Senate last Congress. Why? Because 
they were rubber stamping everything that the President of the United 
States wanted.
  You have witnessed this. We have seen the difference. Now we have the 
opportunity to lead in a bipartisan way. We send a bill to the 
President, he says he is going to veto it because he doesn't like it, 
and he misrepresents what the bill does. I think it's important, as we 
go through this whole discourse of how we are going to carry out for 
the next, how we are going to carry out the mission in getting the men 
and women what they need, I think it's important that we have a little 
truth that rises up out of all of this misinformation.

[[Page 10872]]


  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I totally agree with you. I think the first step 
for most people who find themselves in a massive hole and going in the 
wrong direction, or following someone who continues to lead them down 
the wrong road, is to not follow that person any more.
  What the Democratic Congress has provided is what the American people 
sent the majority of the Democrats down here for in November, and that 
is to take this war in another direction, take our foreign policy in 
another direction. That is what this supplemental bill has done. The 
American people wanted us to take care of the veterans, and we 
increased $500 million for post-traumatic stress disorder, $500 million 
additional for brain injuries, that is what the American people wanted, 
for us to fix the veterans's problem.
  They wanted to make sure, they got tired of hearing about kids over 
there without body armor. So we made sure that no kid could go over 
there, or soldier or adult who is going to Iraq will not be over there 
without the proper equipment, body armor, up-armored Humvees, the 
proper rest when they get back, for over a year, let them rest. We gave 
the American people what they wanted, and what the troops deserved.
  To have that vetoed by a President who has been wrong on every single 
major foreign policy and domestic issue over the past 6 years doesn't 
make any sense to the American people, and it certainly doesn't make 
any sense to us. You look, and it's getting better. You hear this all 
the time, it's not getting better.
  It's not. If it was getting better, do you think you would have this 
uproar from the American people? Do you think you would have all of 
these new Members of Congress if things were getting better?
  In a report that just came out, National Counterterrorism Center, 
terrorist incidents in Iraq rose by 91 percent from 3,468 in 2005 to 
6,630 in 2006 and getting worse. Innocent Iraqis are getting killed all 
the time, and they believe it's because the American soldiers are 
there, because the American presence is there. That is what they 
believe, and we are saying we need to redeploy out of these major 
centers and stop policing a civil war. That is exactly what's 
happening.
  One of the things we wanted to do in the supplemental that the 
President just vetoed is hold the Iraqi government accountable for 
training their own soldiers. You know, the President has always said, 
when they stand up, we stand down. Then they keep telling us that the 
Iraqi soldiers are standing up, but we are not standing down, which 
means they are not standing up.
  We wanted to put benchmarks in there so that the Iraqi soldiers would 
have to meet them or were leaving. Now, you can't give people open-
ended situations in which they can get out of. All we are trying to do 
is hold the Iraqi government responsible.
  I don't like saying it, because I didn't support this war from the 
beginning. To go in there and knock everything around and then say you 
are not doing what you are doing, but the bottom line is, if you do not 
get yourself trained, if you do not, as a country, get your police 
force ready, and your military ready, we can't stay here forever.

                              {time}  2000

  And, Mr. Speaker, I don't think that is too much to ask. And the 
response from the President through his Secretary of State, Secretary 
Rice, signaled Bush's opposition to, ``Any war spending bill,'' check 
this out, ``that penalizes Iraqi's government for failing to make 
progress.'' We are not going to punish them for failing to make 
progress. Are we in a therapy session here?
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I will be happy to yield.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. You know, a mayor of a U.S. city has to carry 
out accountability for Federal money; State governments have to account 
for the dollars and the progress of programs, block grant dollars, that 
we send to the States. Here on U.S. soil, they have to be accountable 
to the Federal Government. If they are not accountable, they may very 
well lose, what? Federal funding.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That is right.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. And what the President is saying, and this blank 
check; you know, Mr. Ryan, I really think that the President thinks 
that he has a rubber stamp Congress. I think that is what he is thinks, 
because that is what he is used to.
  It is almost like having a situation if you are a small business 
owner and you come in and you have a shop in one county and you spend 
most of your time over in the other county, you come over to your other 
shop and you notice the way they are doing business and there aren't 
any accountability measures on productivity, there are no 
accountability measures on spending. And you are wondering why this 
shop, the shop in the opposite county that you are very seldom at is 
running on time or being cost effective, and then you come in and you 
say that there should be change; but then, better yet, the manager of 
that shop says, well, why should we change? I know we are not doing 
things the way you want us to do it and we know that we are spending a 
lot of money over here. Why should we change? Well, that is what we 
have right now.
  The President is saying that the Iraqi elected officials and the 
Iraqi government don't have to be accountable and their feet should not 
be held to the fire. But, better yet, we have mayors, governors, State 
legislators, county commissioner, parish, what have you, they have to 
be accountable or they lose their funding or don't get their funding 
when you are in a war that is costing $500 billion and counting.
  When you look at these issues, Members, you can't help but say 
something is not right here. These are the people that are here in the 
United States of America, States, cities, counties that have to be 
accountable through Federal law and Federal appropriations. And over 
here, we have the Iraqi government. 3,351 of our men and women that 
have died, over 26-plus thousand that have been injured. And wasted 
money. And 100 soldiers that died last month alone. And we don't want 
accountable measures over here. We want to trust the administration on 
it, and we just want to say don't put any benchmarks there, don't even 
put any real goals there, don't do anything, don't ask any questions, 
just send us the money; you don't know what you are doing.
  Well, I tell you this much. As long as this majority is here in this 
House of Representatives that passed a bipartisan bill, sent it to the 
White House, that had accountability measures in it, my prayer tonight 
is going to be for those that will be there at the negotiating table 
there in the White House come tomorrow morning that, on both sides, 
that they hold the interests of the American people before you hold the 
interests of someone that made a promise in Iraq, in a foreign land, to 
say that we are going to have as much flexibility that we are going to 
have, and accountability measures don't need to be in place.
  It couldn't come at a worse time, Mr. Ryan. The newspaper is full and 
the media is full of how the American people have not been told the 
truth. It is sickening. I feel that it is something that I didn't do in 
the minority. Maybe I didn't understand something in the last two 
Congresses that I was a part of, of watching all of this lack of 
information that has been given to Congress and how the administration 
has gotten away with this, and they have gotten away with saying, ``I 
am sorry, that is all. What do you want from us?'' We lost e-mails, CIA 
agents have been outed, clandestine operations abroad have been 
jeopardized. Men and women, there have been cover-ups. I am talking 
about testimony before Congress just weeks ago, things have been 
covered up with friendly fire of certain individuals that signed up to 
defend this country. Meanwhile, we are sitting here being nice guys and 
nice ladies and not standing and hold their feet to the fire.
  This is the reason why we have a U.S. House of Representatives, the 
reason

[[Page 10873]]

we have a U.S. Senate, the reason why there are three branches of 
government, where we don't have kingdom politics where one just says 
this is the way it is going to be, like it or not.
  Well, I have got a message for the White House and I have also got a 
message from the American people. The bottom line is we live in a 
democracy. We would love to sit down at the table of compromise so that 
we can come out with a work product. But don't sit there saying what 
you are not going to do and what you are going to do before you sit 
down at the table. At least the leadership here is saying that we are 
going to make sure that there is accountability and that there are 
benchmarks there for progress, and make sure the U.S. taxpayer dollars 
are being sent, not just some sort of slogan of saying, well, you know, 
I am trying to command from over here. I mean, it didn't make sense, 
Mr. Ryan. But the bottom line is, the thing that is good about this 
whole thing is that if this was a year ago, it wouldn't even be a 
debate. It wouldn't even be discussed. Accountability? Oh, no. The 
majority would say, we wouldn't do that. And now we have the 
accountability, we have the strength of the majority in the Senate and 
the strength of the majority here in the House.
  But if there was a political question, like I said before, and one 
would sit back and just let it play out and say, well, one day we will 
get to that point. We cannot afford to get to that one day. We have to 
do this now. Not several months from now, now. The American people 
demand it, the U.S. troops deserve it, our veterans deserve it.
  There are dollars in this emergency supplemental that fix Walter Reed 
and start to fix the veterans services in this country. There are 
dollars in here that help make sure that the men and women have the 
proper training and the equipment before they get to the field. Wow, 
Mr. Ryan, there is a revelation there, that we will have equipment and 
that we would make sure that striker forces have what they need of 
making sure they have a commander and a gunner and a driver, the 
essentials, that are trained in those categories before that striker 
vehicle pulls out of Camp Victory. Wow, there is something, that we are 
actually going to do what we said we are going to do, and we are going 
to take the Department of Defense's own regulations, Mr. Ryan, and put 
it into Federal law in this emergency supplemental; of saying that if 
you are going to spend these dollars, this $124-plus billion, that you 
are going to be accountable in these ways, Department of Defense.
  The reason why the President doesn't like this, Mr. Ryan, is the fact 
that it is actually doing what it said that he would do, and he doesn't 
want his words to actually come to fruition when it comes down to the 
way he described it. He came here at this podium, Mr. Ryan, we were 
sitting right out here. He came to that podium and said: We are going 
to hold the Iraqi government accountable. We are going to make sure 
that they train the troops. All of these things that he said, we took 
note as the Congress and put it into the emergency supplemental. And I 
think it is important that everyone understands what that is.
  One other thing, Mr. Ryan. The bill provides $21.1 billion for 
military health care, more than what the President requested; $900 
million of that for posttraumatic stress disorder, $661 million to 
prevent health care fees increasing on our troops, $20 million to 
address the problem at Walter Reed. It provides $1.8 billion for more 
veterans health care, more than what the President has called for. I 
want to add again, $595 million to address the backlog maintaining the 
VA health care facilities, $250 million to hire additional personnel 
for the administration for VA health care, for the health care system, 
$229 million for treatment for the growing number of Iraqi and 
Afghanistan veterans, $100 million for mental health care in veterans 
assistance, $83 million to speed up the processing of claims for 
veterans returning back from Iraq and Afghanistan. It also provides 
other additional above what the President calls for as it relates to 
supporting of the troops.
  And I think it is important that people understand, $2 billion for 
more strategic reserve readiness funds, which $1 billion is for Army 
National Guard equipment shortfalls. This is very, very important. $1.1 
billion for more military housing and $3 billion more for making sure 
that there is mine resistant ambush protection, what we call MRAPs, for 
troops in Iraq.
  Mr. Ryan, the reason why the President is talking about additional 
spending, I want to make sure that every veteran in the United States 
of America understands that he is talking about the money that I just 
described and then some.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I know that the President is used to having bills 
come to his desk that he can't even wait for it to get through the door 
before he signs it in tax cuts for the billionaires and those super 
wealthy. But this time he had legislation that's before him or he had 
legislation before him that he vetoed it that would have helped 
everyday Joe and Sue that signed up to serve this country in the way 
that this country asked them to serve. And, doggone it, if we can't 
stand behind them, then something is really wrong.
  And I am really glad, Mr. Ryan, that I am not just speaking on the 
behalf of the ``if we could, we would.'' But I can tell you this. What 
the majority leader is doing when he sits down in the Senate with the 
President tomorrow and the Speaker of this House what she is doing when 
she sits down with the President of the United States tomorrow, I want 
them to feel that they are wearing the breastplate of righteousness to 
be able to go to the President and say, these are average people, they 
are not sons and daughters of millionaires and billionaires. And, you 
know something? They are going to have rights, too. They have rights. 
And they have the right to be represented, and they will be 
represented. And I am so happy that we are going toe to toe with the 
President of the United States, not for politics, but for the country 
and for the folks that their mom and dad, they may only own one pickup 
truck, some of them wanted to go to college but couldn't afford to go 
to college, some might have gone to college and went into the Marines 
or to the Army or to the Navy or to the Air Force or into the Coast 
Guard. Those that are serving in theater as officers, we owe it to 
them. That is the bottom line. They deserve the representation.
  I know that the President is used to getting a blank check so 
Halliburton can spend all the money they want to spend and burn trucks 
and then get paid by the Federal Government. That will no longer 
happen, not under this watch, not as long as we have a Democratic 
majority in this House and a bipartisan spirit that is willing to send 
him the bill.
  I don't want to challenge the President to veto another bill. I want 
to challenge the President to come to the table and sit down, and let's 
have a sensible conversation and let's come up with a work product that 
we can all live with. It is not going to all be that he wants, it is 
not going to be all that we want. But doggone it, Mr. Speaker, when 
they rise from that table and we get the report, the rest of us, 
Members of Congress, the integrity of what we have sent to the White 
House when it comes down to accountability, when it comes down to 
performance, and when it comes down to holding the Iraqi government 
accountable and assisting our men and women that have served and those 
that are coming back from theater when they need veteran services, that 
must be there. That has to be there. And if the President doesn't allow 
it, then I would say our leadership should not allow him to have his 
way.
  As far as I am concerned, it is a no-brainer; and that is the reason 
why the American people overwhelmingly support our position, Mr. Ryan. 
When I say our position, I am not saying the Democratic majority's 
position, I am saying the position of the bipartisan legislation that 
we passed through House and Senate.
  I want to thank you for your patience, sir, because I thought it was 
very, very important that we talk a little bit about what the President 
did veto and what's in the legislation so

[[Page 10874]]

that folks don't get the misrepresentation that has been given to them 
over the last hour or so from the White House.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And let's be clear about this whole issue of 
deadlines. There was a deadline that came out of the House version, for 
the political junkies that are paying attention, Mr. Speaker. There was 
a hard deadline that came out of the House version, not in the Senate 
version. And the compromise that just went to the President had the 
goal, just the goal of maybe getting out of Iraq. No hard deadline, 
just the goal, because we knew that he would veto a hard deadline. And 
as much as we don't like it, he is the President of the United States. 
But there is the goal of leaving. This President, Mr. Speaker, can't 
even think about the goal of getting out of Iraq. He doesn't even want 
to talk about it.
  There is no deadline in this supplemental that he just vetoed, no 
hard deadline at all. The language said, the goal of getting out. So 
let's be very, very clear.
  Now, when people ask, well, why do we need to get out. People I think 
feel why. There's a lot of really good examples, not just from 
Democrats as some of our friends may like to think, but from a variety 
of others.

                              {time}  2015

  Here's what is happening in Iraq, as the Washington Post reported, 
``A department of the Iraqi Prime Minister's Office is playing a 
leading role,'' this is the Iraqi Prime Minister's Office, playing a 
leading role ``in the arrest and removal of senior Iraqi Army and 
National Police Officers, some of whom had apparently worked too 
aggressively to combat violent Shiite militias, according to U.S. 
military officials in Baghdad. Since March 1, at least 16 Army and 
National Police Commanders have been fired, detained or pressured to 
resign. At least 9 of them are Sunnis.''
  So now they are removing police and military people that are cracking 
down on the wrong, somehow the wrong group of terrorists. And some 
folks say this is not like Vietnam.
  How about Senator Hagel, leading Republican, conservative. I read 
today he had an 85 percent rating from a conservative think tank. So he 
is clearly a conservative Republican. He just got back from Iraq. 
Here's what he says in Mr. Novak's column of yesterday, or 2 days ago. 
``This thing is coming undone quickly, and Maliki's government is 
weaker by the day. The police are corrupt, top to bottom. The oil 
problem is a huge problem. They still can't get anything through the 
parliament. No hydrocarbon law, no deBaathification law, no provincial 
elections.''
  That's Chuck Hagel, our friend in the Senate, our colleague in the 
United States Senate. Republican from Nebraska; 85 percent conservative 
rating from a conservative group here in Washington.
  We're saying that we need to change direction, Mr. Speaker. We're 
saying that the Iraqi government has had over 4 years to try to piece 
this thing together, and that we've done all that we can do. And the 
American people do not want to lose any more soldiers to this war. And 
we want a deadline. We want to get out. We want to get out with 
respect. We want to get out with dignity, we want to get out and 
protect our troops.
  But it turns out that the presence of the United States in Iraq is 
inciting violence. We're inciting the civil war. We're the ones being 
attacked, as well as others around. And in April, it's been the sixth 
highest month of American soldiers getting killed in the entirety of 
the war.
  Let's fix this. Let's go in a new direction. This is not time for 
bravado. This it not time for ego. This is time for the American people 
to come together and the Congress to come together, the President to 
recognize that this has not worked, and for us to try to re-establish 
some level of credibility in the world. And this President needs to 
listen to the will of the American people.
  And I want to make one final point, because we have this tremendous 
debate in the country that is not always framed the right way. But I 
want friends who we run into in the street, and someone says I'm pro-
choice and I'm pro-life, and I think we're all pro-life. But the debate 
has been framed as such that pro-life Americans take their role and 
their issues very seriously.
  And I find it extremely ironic, as a pro-life Democrat who voted for 
the partial birth abortion bill, that this President has two vetos. His 
one veto is on stem cell research, because that's a pro-life issue. And 
his second veto is to continue a war in which thousands of American 
soldiers have been killed and injured, and in which tens of thousands, 
if not hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens, innocent, many of them, 
have been killed. And by keeping this open-ended, by keeping this open-
ended, we know that there will be more death and destruction.
  So I find it ironic that this President has two vetos; one pro-life, 
supposedly, and the other pro-war. And how they reconcile that on the 
other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, I'll have no idea. But I think it is 
important for us to recognize how sometimes dysfunctional the 
philosophy, Mr. Meek, of this President and this administration has 
been.
  And so, let's, on the anniversary of ``Mission Accomplished,'' and 
recognizing the failures of the past, let's do what Americans do, and 
that's fix the problem. Americans are full of problem solvers, and 
that's what we do in this country. We fix things, whether it's the car 
or the computer, or the truck, we fix things.
  And I hope that the President will find it in his heart to sit down 
with Speaker Pelosi, to sit down with Leader Reid and the leadership 
from this Congress, and draw on the knowledge of Ike Skelton, the Chair 
of our Armed Services Committee, who's been in this institution, I 
think, over 30 years. Draw on the knowledge of Jack Murtha, who's been 
in this Congress almost 40 years on the Defense Appropriations 
Committee. And stop listening to those people who got us in this 
situation.
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. You know, Mr. Ryan, it's interesting. You 
mentioned Chairman Murtha. Chairman Murtha was fine with the 
administration as long as he was voting with the administration in the 
minority, being the ranking member on Defense Appropriations. They 
didn't have a problem with him. As a matter of fact, he was held up as 
a hero, decorated veteran, longstanding member of the Defense 
Appropriations Committee in the House, ally, called to the White House 
for his advice.
  As soon as Mr. Murtha figured out that, not only was the intelligence 
that the Congress was given was inaccurate, and as soon as he figured 
out that we could not win ``war militarily,'' and he went through a 
long assessment in figuring this out, and talking with professionals 
and talking with generals, talking with those that are still enlisted, 
going into theater, that's what you're supposed to do as an 
appropriator, making sure the American taxpayer dollars are being spent 
appropriately; making sure that what they're telling you here on 
Capitol Hill is actually reality, is the actual reality out in the 
field.
  A lot of folks look to the Middle East when they think of the war. 
Well, the effects of the war are felt right here in this country. You 
go to the military bases and you talk to these families. It's hard to 
go to many of these military bases because you see the children, you 
see the husband or the wife that's left behind. You see those that have 
lost their loved one, or those that are now, have their loved one 
coming back without an arm or a leg, or mentally affected by going into 
theater without the necessary time back home to recover mentally and 
physically from being in the middle of a civil war. I think it's 
important for us to realize that and understand that there's great 
gravity on this issue.
  And the President may believe, in his own mind and also within his 
advisors that are standing around him, that he has to stick to his 
guns, he has to, you know, it's a fight at the OK Corral or here in the 
Capitol city. It's not a fight. We're all Americans. We're all on the 
same side. We salute one flag.

[[Page 10875]]

  I think it's important for us to understand that there are some folks 
here, some of them wear blue jeans, some of them wear, you know, shop 
at big box stores and small stores in the small town, some folk never 
walked in a mall before, and if they walked in a mall they couldn't 
afford many of the things that are in the mall. These are a number of 
our, a super majority of the folks that are represented within the 
Armed Services. They aren't the only ones that serve their country, but 
many of them are financial challenged. And their voice is just as 
strong as the next person, or should be.
  And so when we talk about just the simple things on behalf of the men 
and women in uniform and making sure that we bring some sense to this, 
because if the President had his way, we would be there, my children's 
children will have an opportunity to see this war continue.
  And I think it's very, very important that we talk about 
accountability; not talk about it, act on it. And that's what we're 
doing. We're acting on it.
  Let's look at what the President is all concerned about. The 
President must determine that substantial progress, I must add, is made 
on security, political and reconstruction benchmarks by July, 2007. 
Well, the President can just say, well, you know, I think that's fine. 
I think we're making progress.
  If the President cannot certify progress, redeployment must start by 
July with a goal of being completed, and it has to be certified, that 
if in July, certification is made, redeployment of U.S. troops may 
begin by August 1 of 2007, with a goal to be complete within 180 days, 
by March 31, 2008.
  This is sending a message to the Iraqi government that they have to 
whip themselves in shape; they have to make sure that we train the 
troops. Now, this is combat, this is not cutting off training. Training 
will continue. The things that will take U.S. troops out of harm's way 
will continue.
  We're patrolling the streets of Baghdad. We're patrolling the streets 
of Tikrit and other places. You hear reports of security forces, Iraqi 
security forces, it's very slim. But you hear an uptick in U.S. troops 
that are taking place, I mean, that are taking place right now. And so 
I think it's all important that we understand that accountability 
measures are in place.
  Now, Mr. Ryan, when we talk about accountable. It's interesting. On 
the prescription drug plan there were benchmarks. You had to be 
enrolled by a certain date. And if you weren't enrolled by a certain 
date then there would be penalties for not enrolling by a certain date.
  It's very, very important that Americans and the Members of this 
Congress understand that anything, to bring about progress, has to have 
benchmarks and goals.
  To kind of just say, well, hey, here's $1 million. Don't worry about 
it. We don't care if you provide what you say that you're going to 
provide. We don't care how you spend it. You use your own discretion. 
You spend it. We're not going to say anything.
  Well, that's been the case for about 4 years in this Iraq war. And 
now we're saying that we want to march by a different drummer's beat, 
one of accountability, one of making sure the integrity of what we tell 
the American people is actually, you actually see it, you actually are 
able to follow through with that, what you said that you were going to 
do, that you actually do it, Mr. Ryan.
  And the problem is that the President is finding himself having to be 
accountable. And I can tell you right now that the political question, 
it's not an issue here, because the election took place last November. 
The people have spoken, so we don't even need to get on that issue.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Can I share with the American people and our 
colleagues one more? First, I thought it was interesting, and our crack 
staff here, the President gave his speech in front of the Jefferson 
Memorial. We've got a great quote, 1789, when Jefferson wrote a letter 
to Madison talking about war. ``We have already given one effectual 
check to the dog of war, by transferring the power of letting him loose 
from the Executive to the Legislative body, from those who are to spend 
to those who are to pay.''
  And I think it would be appropriate, if Mr. Bush is going to use 
President Jefferson as a backdrop, that he should recognize at least 
his philosophy on some of these issues.
  But a quote from General John Batiste, retired general. Today, and 
this is on his response to the President's veto. ``The President vetoed 
our troops and the American people. His stubborn commitment to a failed 
strategy in Iraq is incomprehensible. He committed our great military 
to a failed strategy in violation of basic principles of war. His 
failure to mobilize the Nation to defeat worldwide Islamic extremism is 
tragic.''

                              {time}  2030

  ``We deserve more from our Commander in Chief and his 
administration.'' That is Major General John Batiste, retired general.
  It has been a pleasure being here with you today. I hope this week, 
with the leadership of Leader Pelosi, that we continue to stand strong 
behind the American people. And you can be assured, Mr. Speaker, that 
when Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reid are there tomorrow negotiating that they 
will be representing the will of the American people, the 65 percent of 
the American people that want a deadline to get us out.
  [email protected] for any e-mails that the Members may 
want to send us. The charts that we have here, some we showed tonight 
and some we didn't, are all on our Web site www.speaker.gov/
30something. And, again, the e-mail address is 
[email protected].
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Ryan, I thought you made 
some very good points when you read the comments from the general, when 
you talked about the Jefferson backdrop and all today.
  General Petraeus, whom I know and I have seen in theater, which I 
have been to Iraq twice, yes, he is a man that we all feel very good 
about. We know that he is carrying out a mission on behalf of his 
country. But we should not ride on the back of his accomplishments as a 
general and a commander in the field to justify the policy that is 
being carried out by this administration.
  I tell you this, Mr. Ryan, that historians, in the very near future, 
are going to look back at this time and are going to wonder where the 
leaders were when this war and this moment right now that we are 
speaking in was taking place. When I used to play football, we used to 
have a saying, ``The blind leading the blind and the two shall fall in 
the ditch.'' The bottom line is if you know that the policy has been 
wrong, the intelligence has been inaccurate, and that everyone that has 
left the administration has just about written a book about when the 
lie was told and how they heard it first and when it was said, I think 
it is important that people understand and that the Members of this 
House understand how history will reflect on your vote and your lack of 
leadership or your leadership. One of the two. If you want to listen to 
someone else, and I talked to my friends on the minority side, the 
Republican side. There are some of their former colleagues right now 
watching us in this debate here on the floor and wishing that they 
could take their vote back and stand up to the administration. Maybe, 
just maybe, they would still be in Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, I will close on this point: The bottom line is that it 
is time for leadership. It is time for Members on both sides of the 
aisle and especially on the minority side of the aisle, the Republican 
side of the aisle, to go see the wizard, get some courage, and come 
back to this floor and back the will of the American people for 
accountability for our men and women in harm's way and making sure that 
we hold to the integrity of what the President said he would do and 
making sure that we hold the Iraqi government's feet to the fire as 
though we would hold the mayor of Youngstown, Ohio's, feet to the fire 
or Sioux City, Iowa. We are going to hold their feet to the fire for 
Federal dollars. Why can't we hold Iraqi government's feet for Federal 
dollars? And the President is saying don't hold their feet to the fire 
and don't

[[Page 10876]]

hold my words, whatever I have said in the past, as though I meant what 
I said. And the bottom line is that we have a responsibility.
  So as we carry out that responsibility tomorrow morning at the White 
House, I hope that we are at the table of compromise but also holding 
to the integrity of what we originally sent to the President.
  There has already been compromise. The language changed from when we 
passed it here on the floor and it went to the conference committee. 
Some language was changed then because the President didn't like it, 
and then it came to the floor and we voted for that. And now it is to 
the White House, and the President says he still doesn't like it. Now 
we are about to sit down again with the President to talk about these 
issues. And then maybe, just maybe, there may be another vote here on 
the floor and the President may say he still doesn't like it.
  So when it comes down to the speech of who is letting the troops 
down, I think it is going to become more and more evident to the 
American people and to the Congress that we have a problem on the 
executive branch end of not being at the table of compromise for real 
on behalf of our men and women in uniform. We are doing our job. Let's 
continue to do it.
  With that, Mr. Ryan, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the leadership for 
allowing us to come here to address the American people in the U.S. 
House once again. It was a great honor.

                          ____________________