[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4527]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    U.S. INCREASES TROOPS IN IRAQ AND SYRIA: WHEN WILL CONGRESS ACT?

  (Mr. McGOVERN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McGOVERN. Drip, drip, drip, Mr. Speaker. That is the sound of 
U.S. escalation in Syria and Iraq. Yesterday, the Pentagon announced 
that the U.S. will send 217 additional troops to Iraq, pushing the 
official number of U.S. troops there to more than 4,000.
  Mainly Army Special Forces, they will be embedded with Iraqi brigades 
and battalions. They will be stationed close to the front lines. They 
will include trainers and maintenance crews for the new deployment of 
Apache helicopters.
  More U.S. commandos could also head to Syria, bolstering the roughly 
50 Special Operations Forces advising and training rebel forces on the 
ground.
  Just when is the House going to debate and vote on an authorization 
for deploying U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria?
  When is the House going to debate these escalations that add more 
firepower and put more U.S. troops close to the front lines?
  Our troops carry out their constitutional duties. When will Congress 
act and carry out its constitutional responsibility?
  The American people are tired of endless wars. Putting these wars on 
remote control, with no debate and no votes, is shameful.

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