[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13620]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Jones) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, to begin my short statement today, I would 
like to read you a recent headline from The Washington Times: ``Golden 
Hammer: U.S. squandered $34 million on failed Afghan soybean project.'' 
The first few sentences of this report read: ``Call it the great 
American soybean heist, the latest tale of U.S. taxpayer abuse to 
emanate from Afghanistan. Despite clear evidence that Afghanistan's 
arid soil was a bad place to grow soybeans, the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture spent $34.4 million tying to establish the crop in that 
country, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghan 
Reconstruction.''
  Mr. Speaker, here we go again, talking about the waste, fraud, and 
abuse of American resources in Afghanistan.
  Yesterday I spoke on the House floor in memory of three members of 
the United States Army who died as a result of their service in 
Afghanistan. The deaths of these three men represent my greatest 
concern with our servicemembers continuing to remain in Afghanistan: 
that more and more of our men and women in uniform will be killed and 
wounded.
  The loss of life and limb is far more important than the money that 
is being wasted. However, Mr. Speaker, our country is in a dangerous 
financial situation.
  In addition to the soybean report, I want to read three more 
headlines that accentuate the waste of our taxpayer money in 
Afghanistan. From CBS News: ``Is the Pentagon wasting taxpayer money in 
Afghanistan?'' From the Center for Public Integrity: ``The U.S. 
military was no match for Afghanistan's corruption.'' And from the 
World Affairs Journal: ``Money pit: The monstrous failure of U.S. aid 
to Afghanistan.''
  Mr. Speaker, how much more can the poor American taxpayer continue to 
spend on a failed policy in Afghanistan? I cannot emphasize enough that 
we have children, senior citizens, and veterans here at home that 
desperately need our assistance, yet we run out of money for their 
programs because we refuse to make cuts to the funds that are being 
funneled overseas, and especially in Afghanistan.
  I say to the administration and to Congress that it is time to fix 
America's problems, not Afghanistan's problems, and not the world's 
problems.
  In closing, Mr. Speaker, I want, again, to mention the three Army 
soldiers who were killed last week on July 25: Staff Sergeant Benjamin 
G. Prange, PFC Keith M. Williams, and PFC Donnell A. Hamilton, Jr.

                              {time}  1030

  Mr. Speaker, beside me, I have poster after poster of the cost of 
war. As a young kid named Tyler Jordan--this is actually from 2003, our 
early days in Iraq, a very unnecessary war--his father was a gunny 
sergeant named Phillip Jordan, and he was killed, and here is Tyler 
being given the flag that was folded after it was taken off his 
father's grave.
  I don't know how many of these three names I just mentioned--I know 
one family, he had two little girls, maybe they got a folded flag--but 
it is time for Congress to wake up.
  There is no need to have our young men and women overseas giving 
their life and limb and to see the money wasted overseas in fraud, 
waste, and abuse when we can use it right here to fix America's 
problems.
  Please, God, continue to bless our men and women in uniform; and 
please, God, continue to bless America.

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