[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8151-8155]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS MESSAGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Ellison) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, I am here to talk about a very critical 
anniversary before us tonight, the Iraq anniversary. The Iraq war 
anniversary is tomorrow, Mr. Speaker, and it is critical that we give 
this moment due attention.
  I am here as the person who leads our Progressive Special Order hour, 
the Progressive Message, and I want to just start off by thanking Mr. 
Jared Polis of Colorado who is here with me tonight who is a member of 
the Progressive Caucus and who has some very

[[Page 8152]]

clear remarks to share with me right now.
  Congressman, let me yield to you and can you reflect on this 
auspicious occasion, the anniversary of the Iraq war.
  Mr. POLIS. Thank you, Mr. Ellison. I would like to read briefly from 
warnewstoday.blogspot.com. Frequently in our mainstream media, it seems 
as if everything is wonderful in Iraq. That couldn't be further from 
the truth. Every day, Mr. Speaker, there are casualties and deaths of 
Iraqis. And yes, our American men and women continue to lose their 
lives overseas.
  Today alone, Mr. Speaker, a leading politician from the Iraqi Islamic 
Party has been assassinated west of Baghdad.
  Incident number two, a magnetic bomb targeted a police officer's car 
in the Shaab neighborhood of eastern Baghdad. It went off at 7:15 p.m. 
The officer was injured and taken to a hospital.
  Incident number three, from today, Mr. Speaker, gunmen shot and 
wounded two Interior Ministry personnel when they attacked their 
vehicle in central Baghdad on Wednesday.
  Incident number four from today in Kut, police forces found an 
unknown civilian body, as they do many days, hard to identify, happens 
often, on the outskirts of town.
  In Kirkuk, gunmen killed a landlord and his wife when they stormed 
their house.

                              {time}  1715

  In Mosul, again, today, Mr. Speaker, an employee from the 
Displacement and Migration Department on Wednesday was shot by an 
unknown gunman in northern Mosul.
  Also in Mosul, a gunman killed a civilian in a drive-by shooting 390 
miles north of Baghdad. A roadside bomb killed two civilians when it 
struck a U.S. patrol in eastern Mosul. And again today, unknown gunman 
on Thursday killed the Mayor of Dober Dan Village. Again today in Iraq, 
police found the body of a man shot in the head and chest in a town 
near Mosul.
  When I had the opportunity to go to Iraq last year, Mr. Speaker, and 
talk to people who served on town councils, mayors--these were in the 
city of Baghdad, autonomous zones, they had their own city council--it 
was a high-risk occupation. I was informed that nearly a quarter of the 
people that serve in those capacities on those local city councils have 
been assassinated, Mr. Speaker.
  There are many who would have us believe that the situation in Iraq 
is rosy. While it might be pleasant to believe that, Mr. Speaker, 
today, on the sixth anniversary of the war, we need to face reality. 
This war will end when we choose for this war to end, Mr. Speaker.
  Along with several of my colleagues, and yourself, Mr. Speaker, we 
signed the Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq almost 2 years ago. 
Joined by our colleagues, Representative Edwards, Representative Massa, 
Representative Pingree, Representative Perriello, and myself, as well 
as a number of retired military personnel, we put forth a plan not only 
to end the war, but to ensure that this sort of travesty never occurs 
in our country again, to restore our Constitution and our liberties.
  Mr. ELLISON. Will the gentleman from Colorado yield for a moment?
  Mr. POLIS. I will.
  Mr. ELLISON. You are fresh off the campaign trail, Congressman. You 
have been knocking on doors, talking to folks, and you know what people 
are thinking. You haven't been around here long enough to get jaded, 
and so your level of enthusiasm for the work is still very fresh. What 
are the American people saying about our involvement now on its sixth 
year in Iraq?
  Mr. POLIS. There are a lot of distractions here at home. We have the 
most severe recession since the Great Depression. We have scandalous 
uses of public money that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle 
talked about that we addressed today with regard to bonuses paid to AIG 
executives. But there are many Americans who, even today, have their 
sons and daughters, their brothers and sisters, the mothers and fathers 
of young Americans in school serving overseas in Iraq today, putting 
their lives in jeopardy every day and, yes, losing their loved ones 
every day. And you can bet that for those families that are affected by 
that, that is one of the most important issues to them.
  Mr. ELLISON. Congressman, if you would yield back for a moment, I 
would like to ask you again; in the course of your work, you're walking 
around Colorado, you're walking around your district, you're talking to 
folks, did you talk to any American families who had loved ones who 
were stop-loss, who are now on their second, third, fourth deployment? 
Did you see anything like that as I yield back to you, Congressman?
  Mr. POLIS. Absolutely. And not only does that divide families, does 
that compromise the ability of families to provide the kind of family 
life for their kids that they want to, to support themselves at the 
level that they want to, not only does it do that, but it divides these 
families, it compromises our competitiveness as a country, and it 
weakens our national defense to have men and women serving who would, 
in many cases, rather be almost anywhere else.
  Mr. ELLISON. Congressman, if you would yield back, I can tell you 
that as a Member of Congress myself--now I'm a sophomore Member, and 
you and I are closer to not being Congressmen and being long-term 
veterans--my heart always breaks a little bit whenever I talk to a 
spouse who says my wife or husband is going to be leaving here for a 
year or 18 months, or how about the situation where a woman walks up 
and says, see this baby who is 9 months old? She never met her daddy. 
Is this the kind of thing that you saw while you were on the campaign 
trail?
  Mr. POLIS. I saw many families across our district that were directly 
affected by this. And as you know, with that duration of service--well 
beyond what many of our men and women thought they were signing up 
for--the psychological toll when they return is terrible. To serve 
under those conditions for several years in a row, continually being 
re-upped, that becomes your reality, the existence in that war zone. It 
is very hard, when you finally do return, to rejoin this reality we 
have here in this country.
  Mr. ELLISON. Congressman, as you have done your work, you're fresh 
off the campaign trail, I wonder, did you ever have any occasion to 
talk to family members who said, you know, my son came back, but he's 
kind of different than he was when he left; he used to have a smile, he 
used to have a joke for everybody, and now it seems like the weight of 
the world is on this 22-year-old guy, now it seems like my daughter 
can't find her smile again?
  In my great State of Minnesota, we had a young person who sought 
mental health care, and there wasn't enough room and they couldn't get 
in right away. And before this person could come back, they took their 
own life because they couldn't get the helicopters out of their head, 
they couldn't get the horror, they couldn't get these kind of images 
out of their mind, and yet, we've learned that suicide is a serious 
issue for our fighting men and women, particularly in connection with 
Iraq.
  Have you encountered these kind of medical challenges that our 
veterans are facing in connection with this war?
  Mr. POLIS. I have held hands with veterans and their families and 
borne witness to the tremendous stresses. It is a difficult topic for 
any of us to talk about without getting emotional. These are men and 
women who have served our country proudly. We need to make sure that we 
have the right mental and physical health support services when they 
return, but most importantly, to bring them out of harm's way.
  It is hard to adjust. I talk to many who are living at home, who are 
depressed, who are living in a basement. They had their whole lives 
ahead of them, have had to serve several years overseas, have become 
part of that reality of seeing the cost of war, their coworkers and 
people in their unit blown up in front of their eyes, sometimes 
receiving physical injuries, sometimes only mental injuries, but 
turning back, having a very difficult time reintegrating and getting 
back to work.

[[Page 8153]]


  Mr. ELLISON. Congressman, let me tell you, tomorrow marks the 
beginning of the seventh year of the war in Iraq. Throughout that time, 
we have lost more than 4,000 of America's bravest men and women. The 
number, to date, that I have is 4,259, but of course the way this war 
has been going, it could be 4,260 or 4,270.
  We have spent over $600 billion, with long-term cost projections in 
the trillions, and we have seen Iraqi civilian casualties estimated at 
the hundreds of thousands. We know that there are over 30,000 Americans 
who have been injured. And of course the numbers of deaths are easy to 
count, but the injuries are more difficult because not all the injuries 
are manifested in terms of a limb or a scar; but of course we've seen 
those, too. Let me tell you, if you go to Landstuhl Air Force Base, the 
hospital there in Germany, you see bright-eyed, young people who have 
suffered catastrophic injuries, and of course we've seen them back 
home.
  We all know, Congressman, that the purported reasons for going to 
Iraq--you remember what they are. Would you care to tick off a few of 
the reasons you and I were told, as Americans, that we needed to go 
into Iraq? Do you remember what some of those reasons were back almost 
6 years ago, Congressman?
  Mr. POLIS. We were misinformed and led to believe there were weapons 
of mass destruction in Iraq.
  Mr. ELLISON. Weapons of mass destruction. And all we have been found 
with, Congressman, is weapons of mass distraction, as we have been 
given misinformation, disinformation due to a combination of political 
pressure, cherry-picking effects, and poor intelligence. All these 
assertions ended up being wrong, wrong, wrong and dramatically 
undermined American credibility around the world.
  Congressman, you also would probably have to agree with me that this 
war has had a corrosive effect on our standing in the world. Whether 
you're talking about Abu Ghraib, whether you're talking about Bagram, 
whether you're talking about--whatever you're talking about, our 
country, which is known as a beacon of civil and human rights, as the 
rule of law prevails in America, we have seen this conflict sort of eat 
at what we stand for. I wonder, are these things that you've 
encountered as you were out there on the campaign trail and as you have 
been a Member of this body for the last several weeks?
  Mr. POLIS. There is great frustration that this war continues to 
compromise our very important war on terror. One of the most important 
fronts on the war on terror is the diplomatic front. This war has 
undermined our ability to engage other nations on the diplomatic front 
and continues to this day.
  Mr. ELLISON. Well, yielding back, Congressman, you and I also know 
that you are right when you say one of the purported reasons was 
weapons of mass destruction, which you and I learned was not true. We 
also know that we were told--we went through sort of this link that was 
sort of made between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. What have we learned? 
The bipartisan--bipartisan, that's Republicans and Democrats--9/11 
Commission found that there was ``no operational relationship between 
Iraq and al Qaeda.'' Claims that 9/11 hijacker Muhammad Atta met with 
Iraqi agents in Prague turned out to be false. Do remember that one, 
Congressman?
  Mr. POLIS. I remember those insinuations that were made by the 
administration at the time. Many people were led to believe that 
somehow, in some way, shape or form, Iraq and Saddam Hussein were 
aligned with al Qaeda, and it couldn't have been further from the 
truth.
  Mr. ELLISON. Well, Congressman, as you yield back, we were told 
weapons of mass destruction, links with Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. 
And some people said, well, at least Saddam Hussein is gone--and of 
course we're glad he is gone, but it almost seems like, when the 
argument was made, that folks acted like it was a cost-free endeavor, 
that he was just gone and we didn't have to pay dearly as a Nation for 
it.
  But one of the questions that I want to also direct to you, 
Congressman, is, $8 billion in reconstruction funding disappeared under 
the Bush administration's watch. According to Iraq's Public Integrity 
Commission, roughly $8 billion in the country's reconstruction funds 
were ``wasted or stolen'' between 2007 and the beginning of the 
invasion. How does that strike you?
  When you think about waste, fraud, and abuse, you might have heard 
that story about that billion dollars in bills sitting on a wooden 
pallet. How does that strike you? How does that strike your 
constituents?
  Mr. POLIS. You know, our colleagues today from the other side were 
here holding forth about accountability for this $160 million, where 
did this $160 million go? Who knew and when? And those are questions 
that we need to answer, but let me say that that pales--$160 million 
wrongfully paid to AIG executives, $8 billion unaccounted for, where is 
the outrage and where is the investigation?
  Mr. ELLISON. Well, Congressman, I think that is a question that we 
all need to ponder. But Halliburton, after receiving no-bid 
reconstruction contracts from the Bush White House, wasted hundreds of 
millions of taxpayer dollars. A 2005 report by Senator Byron Dorgan and 
Congressman Henry Waxman cited internal Pentagon audits that question 
``more than a billion dollars in the company's bills for work in 
Iraq.''
  It just boggles the mind. If the American taxpayer, in their 
generosity, says let's get water going in Baghdad, let's get 
electricity going in Baghdad, at least if we spent the money, the 
people there ought to get it; wouldn't you say so, Congressman?
  Mr. POLIS. Absolutely.
  Mr. ELLISON. And there have been other costs, those that are less 
easy to quantify, such as the cost to America's image, which you spoke 
of very well, Congressman Polis. And though it is difficult to assign 
numbers, we know the view of our great Nation has suffered--although 
I'm happy to report we're on the mend now--and the cost is just really 
very difficult to calculate.
  Let me just remind folks that this is the Progressive message. We are 
talking about the anniversary of the Iraq war, we are talking about 
what's going on. We are the Progressive Caucus, and we're talking about 
a vision of peace and a vision of a progressive message in our country.
  I want to get to this panel in our slides, Congressman. And I want to 
say, after 6 years of the Iraq war, here is sort of the cost that I 
just alluded to. Here is what we've had to pay. Here are some of the 
hits--flush with cites on the bottom of each one because we're not just 
up here talking, we back up what we say at the Progressive message. 
U.S. troops killed in Iraq, 4,259 as of today.
  Mr. POLIS. Each one with a family.
  Mr. ELLISON. Each one with a family, each one with a story, each one 
with a future, each one with a patriotic passion for their Nation, each 
one who wanted to come home. And each one didn't have to ever go to 
Iraq because the premise for our involvement was, as you and I just 
mentioned, those reasons were discovered to not be accurate, the 
weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein in connection with al 
Qaeda.
  U.S. troops wounded in Iraq, 31,102. And again, these are traumatic 
brain injuries, these are lost limbs, these are severe injuries--some 
will heal, some are injuries for a lifetime, as you know, Congressman. 
And I will yield if you want to comment on any of these. Iraqi 
civilians killed in the war, about 150,000; that's according to the 
World Health Organization. Please look it up yourself if you have any 
questions about that number. And you would have to imagine, in a 
country of about 29 million people, that there is no Iraqi family that 
has not seen death and destruction, and this has to be extremely 
traumatizing.

                              {time}  1730

  Iraqi civilians forced from their homes, according to the United 
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, about 4.7 million persons who 
have been homeless as a result of this conflict. That's a big deal. 
U.S. troops deployed in Iraq, right now we have got about 138,000 
people there and, again, a

[[Page 8154]]

conflict that, according to the reasons offered to us by the Bush 
administration, not one should have been there based on the reasons 
they offered to us.
  Impact of war on the U.S. economy, $1.3 trillion. That's the 
Congressional Joint Economic Committee Report. I hope folks who might 
be seeing this, Mr. Speaker, will be willing to look at the 
Congressional Joint Economic Committee Report, which will cite the 
impact of this war on our economy as $1.3 trillion. That's a lot of 
money. That's a whole lot of money.
  Cost of the Iraq War to the average American family, according again 
to the Congressional Joint Economic Committee Report, that's about 
$16,500 per American family. We have paid dearly, too dearly for our 
involvement in this conflict. And in my view, Mr. Speaker, the cost of 
even one life is too dear, even $1 is too dear, but we have made much, 
much more than that.
  Mr. POLIS. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. ELLISON. Yes, sir.
  Mr. POLIS. At top of the chart, it says after 6 years of war in Iraq. 
I ask you how many more anniversaries must we observe? Is five enough? 
Is six enough? We have been in this war longer than our Nation was 
involved in World War II. After 6 years how many more? There was a 
young boy 12 years old playing video games when this war started who is 
serving and being injured in Iraq today. How many more years, Mr. 
Ellison?
  Mr. ELLISON. Congressman, I have just got to tell you that 1 more 
minute is too much. Our President has said that 16 months is our out 
date, and I think it's incumbent upon all of us to make sure that it is 
that or less because, quite frankly, I don't look forward to coming up 
here another year from now saying that we're still present in Iraq in 
the way that we are now. We need to out of there. We need to wind our 
way out. Iraq needs to go back to the people of Iraq. Iraqis need to 
get ahold of their country and govern their own affairs.
  Sometimes we talk about the Iraq War and even here I've used the word 
``war,'' but really at this point we are not talking about a war. We 
are talking about an occupation. And when I say that, I don't mean that 
in any sort of a derisive way. It's the legal word that is appropriate 
for this situation. In a war you can win or lose, but in an occupation 
you can only stay longer than you should or you can leave sooner than 
you should, but eventually you've got to go; right? So with this 
America involvement in Iraq, it is time to say to the Iraqi people, 
``This is your country. We will not abandon you. We will not leave you 
because, of course, we're deeply implicated in your country at this 
time, but the reality is the military engagement needs to come to a 
close.''
  Let me ask you this, Congressman Polis: When you think about this 
statistic, Iraqi civilians forced from their homes and the number of 
about 4.7 million, how does that strike you when you consider Iraqi 
boys and girls who used to live one place but now can't because of this 
military conflict? How does that impact their development? How does 
that impact their ability to grow up to be strong citizens of the world 
in, say, 5, 10, 15 years?
  Mr. POLIS. As you know, Mr. Ellison, close to a million of them have 
been forced from their country and reside in Jordan, reside in Syria, 
reside in Lebanon in everything ranging from refugee camps to short-
term rental housing. It has been an issue in the greater Amman area, do 
we let them in the school with our Jordanian kids? They're out of 
school for a while. Sometimes they're in; sometimes they're out. It's 
spotty. Many of them might never be able to go back. The areas they 
lived in might be controlled by competing tribes, their houses taken 
over, forced away at gunpoint.
  This dislocation is historical in scope. We are talking about a 
sizable amount of people within Iraq who have been displaced, some to 
other countries, some to other parts of Iraq.
  Mr. ELLISON. Well, Congressman, I just want to point out to you and 
to everyone watching, Mr. Speaker, that when one child is forced from 
their home or one adult, for that matter--a home is like a bowl. Can 
you imagine making a cake without a bowl? Where are you going to put 
the eggs? Where are you going to put the milk? Where are you going to 
put all the ingredients for that cake so that you can make that cake 
and put it in the oven? Try to imagine raising a family. You don't know 
where you're going to be. You don't know where your school is going to 
be. No familiar places. You're a stranger everywhere. This kind of 
displacement has an impact on a child's ability to learn, a child's 
ability to embrace the environment that they're in. The child begins to 
sense that maybe their parents can't really protect them, that maybe 
they're vulnerable and perhaps that anything could happen to them at 
any time.
  This does not bode well for the future. We're talking about a region 
of the world that has known way too much conflict, and this conflict is 
one that we surely need to end. And this idea of displacement, I think, 
is another thing that we need to talk about in terms of the impact on 
the development of this society as we talk in this Progressive message 
this hour and the anniversary of the war in Iraq.
  Congressman, let's turn for a moment, then, to veterans' care, if you 
will. We must begin to take seriously the promise to care for our 
veterans. Our veterans, prominent men and women, you have them in 
Colorado and I've got them in Minnesota. Actually, they are from all 
over this country. And the fact is with tens of thousands of injured 
troops returning home, we must work diligently to ensure that they do 
not fall through the cracks and that every soldier receives care and 
benefits that they have earned and deserve.
  During the 110th Congress, when I was a freshman Member, I was proud 
to have voted for the largest increase in funding for Veterans Affairs 
in history, upon passage of H.R. 2642, the Fiscal Year 2008 Military 
Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies appropriations 
bill. We made a real commitment to military hospital construction, 
improving the quality of care for veterans, improving the lives of 
veterans, making sure that we shorten the period of time and that their 
veterans' benefits got to them in a quick way. We not only talked 
patriotism, we did patriotism as we passed this largest Veterans 
Affairs funding bill in the history of our country.
  In the fall of 2007, I worked closely with the Minnesota 
congressional delegation to ensure that members of the Minnesota 
National Guard Unit, the 1/34th Brigade Combat Team receive their full 
active component GI Bill entitlements. That particular unit, that 
particular brigade combat team, returned to Minnesota after a 22-month 
mobilization and deployment to Iraq, the longest tour of any ground 
combat unit during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Unfortunately, members of 
the unit were informed after they returned home, Congressman and Mr. 
Speaker, that they were not eligible for their full GI benefits because 
their orders to return home cut them a few days short of the 
eligibility for these benefits. After my office was informed of this 
decision, I and Mr. Tim Walz, my congressman and the highest-ranking 
enlisted Member ever to come to Congress, wrote a letter to the 
Department of Defense to appeal the decision. The Army responded 
positively, and most of the soldiers of this very brave, courageous, 
and successful combat unit were granted waivers to access those 
educational benefits.
  And I just wanted to share that with you, Mr. Speaker and 
Congressman, because I think it's important that the world know that 
Members of Congress are fighting for their constituents who have served 
our country bravely.
  And I just want to ask you, Congressman Polis, if you have any 
thoughts you want to share with us about our veterans at this time and 
about our Nation's commitment to this group of Americans. Whether or 
not we agree on the war, we all agree that the warrior needs to be 
supported. Any comments as I yield to you?

[[Page 8155]]


  Mr. POLIS. Thank you, Mr. Ellison. We have some fortunate news for 
Colorado veterans. Yesterday morning several of my colleagues from the 
Colorado delegation and I met with Secretary Shinseki, and he announced 
that they are moving forward with a new VA hospital at Fitzsimmons to 
serve our veterans in Colorado. Due to the hard work of your classmate 
and our colleague Congressman Perlmutter and my predecessor who is now 
on the other side, Senator Udall, who have for years fighting to 
improve it. And I have toured the old VA hospital in Colorado. And this 
new one is going to have a spinal trauma unit. It's going to be state 
of the art, and it's what we needed.
  But there are too many places in our country, as you know, Mr. 
Ellison, where veterans don't have the quality of health care that they 
have earned by serving our country so proudly.
  Mr. ELLISON. Well, Congressman, I just want to congratulate you and 
all the delegation of Colorado on this wonderful news. I believe that 
Mr. Shinseki is one of the best Veterans Affairs Secretaries our 
country has ever seen, and I expect that we will be able to work 
closely with him to not only help the constituents of your great State 
but probably many others around our country.
  I also just want to mention that I'm proud to have the Minneapolis VA 
hospital in my district, and Minneapolis VA is one of the facilities in 
our country that I feel very proud to be able to represent. The 
Minneapolis VA Medical Center has been awarded the 2008 Robert W. Carey 
Trophy Award for performance and excellence. If I sound like I'm a 
little proud of them, you're right, I am. The annual Carey Trophy 
Award, the most prestigious national quality award that the VA bestows, 
recognizes a VA organization that implements management approaches 
resulting in high levels of performance and service to our veterans. So 
I am just real happy to mention that. And I am proud, along with you, 
as we see veterans in Colorado, Minnesota, all over the country being 
able to benefit from a responsive Congress, a grateful Congress, for 
the great service that these brave men and women have given to our 
country.
  Mr. POLIS. Will you yield for a moment?
  Mr. ELLISON. Yes, sir.
  Mr. POLIS. Let me also add how important it is that the rest of our 
agenda, the Recovery Act, health care have passed so that our returning 
veterans are returning to an economy that's growing, that has jobs, 
that has health care if they were not injured in combat. They deal with 
the very real issue of health care sometimes for the first time in 
their lives, if they've been in the military for some period of time 
right out of college or even before college, and the importance of the 
Recovery Act, creating over 3 million jobs, hopefully many of which 
will go to our returning veterans.
  Mr. ELLISON. Congressman, great point. The fact is that our veterans 
are Americans, of course, some of the finest Americans. They come back 
to their country; they expect a country that's working. So they can 
come back and maybe get a green job that will help them build our 
country on the civilian side. They can help weatherize our 
neighborhoods. They can help build senior housing, low-income housing. 
They can do so many things our country needs and help build us a 
renewable future.
  So I think you're absolutely right to introduce the broader economic 
context that we're in. One thing we don't want to see is to have these 
veterans who have given so much for so many come back to a country 
where we're not building, where we're not preparing for the future. So 
you're right. I'm glad you mentioned the American Economic Recovery and 
Reinvestment Act. I'm glad you mentioned our efforts to build a health 
care system that everyone can benefit from. I'm glad you mentioned 
these important things because, of course, veterans are folks who come 
into a broader context, and it's not only veterans' benefits that 
benefit veterans. It's a working, functioning America in which 
everybody has a slice of the pie.
  So, Congressman, as we are wrapping up today, I just want to thank 
you again for being here with us this afternoon. The Progressive 
message has to always come week in, week out. Whether or not Members 
are on a Thursday night jumping on a plane trying to get back home or 
not, the Progressive message has to be part of what we do every week. 
And I just want to yield to you to sort of offer some final thoughts as 
we begin to wrap up our comments tonight.
  Mr. POLIS. I would just say that let us hope that next year we are 
celebrating an anniversary of the end of the Iraq War and not the 
seventh anniversary of this unjust war in the wrong place.
  Mr. ELLISON. Let me join with you in that hope and in that wish. I 
think I can speak for the members of the Progressive Caucus, Mr. 
Speaker, when I say that we will be working hard to make that dream a 
reality.
  I also want to point out that there have been a great many Americans, 
I'm sure Minnesotans and I'm sure Coloradans as well, who have been 
calling for, working for, pushing for America to assert its soft power 
in the world and to help make peace in this world and be a source of 
peace in this world.

                              {time}  1745

  You can bet there is a committed group of Americans who are in the 
United States Congress who are people who call themselves the 
Progressive Caucus, and you can find out what we are doing on this Web 
site, it's cpc.grijalva.house.gov. We are going to be here giving this 
progressive message every week, and we are the Progressive Caucus.
  As I wrap it up, and I just want to thank you for joining me tonight, 
we are going to be here week in, week out, through rain, shine, winter, 
summer, talking about a progressive message, a progressive message for 
America, for the world.
  Congressman Polis, let me thank you again for joining me tonight.
  I yield back.

                          ____________________