[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 14866-14867]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     RAMMING A DANGEROUS AND CONTROVERSIAL AGENDA THROUGH CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Olson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my growing alarm with 
the Democrat leadership's clear intention to use the conference report 
on the war supplemental appropriations bill to ram a dangerous and 
controversial agenda through this Congress.
  It is now clear that Senate and House Democrats have decided to let 
their own political agenda subvert a bipartisan agreement on providing 
the men and women of our military with the support they need to 
continue the fight against terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan.

                              {time}  1730

  I proudly supported the House version of this bill when it originally 
passed this Chamber. However, Democrats are now preparing to use the 
conference report, which cannot, cannot be amended, to add unrelated, 
politically motivated poison pills to the measure.
  My Democrat colleagues are proposing to add up to $108 billion for 
the International Monetary Fund as part

[[Page 14867]]

of the global bailout for foreign nations. Not only is this a bad idea 
on its own, I have yet to hear any explanation of how on Earth this 
will benefit our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  In fact, this money will have precisely the opposite effect. Iran, 
which the State Department has repeatedly certified as ``the most 
active state sponsor of terrorism in the world,'' would be eligible for 
these funds. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who describes America as ``the 
biggest menace on our planet'' and supports narcoterrorists in 
neighboring nations, he, too, would be eligible for these funds.
  The purpose of this bill is to make sure our Armed Forces have the 
men and material they need to defeat terrorists. That this bill would 
include funding that could benefit the sponsors of terrorism, it's 
outrageous.
  All of this being said, I'd welcome an honest, open debate and vote 
in this Chamber on the IMF funding, but my Democrat colleagues 
apparently would rather not risk a separate up-or-down vote. Therefore, 
they've resorted to playing games with funding for our troops by shoe-
horning this measure in a war spending bill with no opportunity for 
debate here in the people's House.
  And it won't end there. Unbelievably, reports are that Democrats are 
looking to include language to permit the transfer of terrorists being 
held in Guantanamo Bay to the United States, and they intend to require 
the immediate release of photographs of detained terrorists, likely, 
likely inflaming Islamists across the globe and further endangering our 
Armed Forces deployed overseas.
  And again, I will happily debate these wrongheaded measures on the 
floor of this body any day of the week, but this attempt to ram these 
unacceptable provisions through the House without a debate or a vote is 
simply wrong. And I can't think of a more demoralizing message to send 
to our fighting forces than that a majority of Congress is willing, for 
political expediency's sake, to load down a war funding bill with 
unrelated, unpopular provisions.
  When I served in the United States Navy, we feared the annual games 
politicians played with military funding. It made us angry to know that 
we were tasked with a mission, and then politicians played politics 
with the resources we needed to complete that mission.
  Mr. Speaker, I did not come here to play that game. There is no honor 
in a vote that conditions the funding for our soldiers, sailors, 
airmen, marines and coastguardsmen on satisfying an unrelated political 
agenda. This Congress must not cheapen and degrade our military to 
simply move forward with political interests.

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