[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 7994-7995]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 DEMOCRATIC SUPPLEMENTAL AMENDMENT CALLS FOR ALL TROOPS TO BE HOME BY 
                            DECEMBER OF 2009

  (Mr. YARMUTH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, this week Congress has an opportunity to 
change the course of the war in Iraq by supporting an amendment to the 
emergency supplemental that would not only direct the President to 
immediately begin bringing our troops home but would also force the 
Iraqi Government to start paying their own reconstruction costs.
  The amendment calls on the Bush administration to begin redeploying 
our troops out of Iraq one month after it is signed into law, with the 
goal of having all of our troops out by December of next year.
  Another year of the status quo in Iraq is unacceptable. April was the 
deadliest month for U.S. troops in seven months, and the political 
reconciliation that President Bush promised when he implemented his 
troop escalation plan has not become a reality.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a significant step in the right direction, but 
for some reason, congressional Republicans want to once again send 
President Bush a blank check. Blank checks have not worked in the past 
and they will not this time.
  We all know that there is no military solution to war in Iraq. It's 
time we let the Iraqis know that our days there are numbered.

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