[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6054]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        CONGRESS SHOULD VOTE ON CONTINUING POLICY IN AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Jones) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, last week was another reminder of the chaos 
in Afghanistan. Tragically, 200 Afghan soldiers were killed by the 
Taliban; but, unfortunately, that is no surprise.
  After 16 years in Afghanistan, absolutely nothing has changed. If 
anything, it has gotten worse. The American taxpayer, United States 
military, and the marines in my district are frustrated with the 16 
years of continued chaos. That is why Mr. Garamendi and I have 
introduced H.R. 1666 and have been joined by seven of our colleagues. 
Our bill asks that Congress be able to debate and vote on whether we 
should or should not continue our current policy in Afghanistan.
  Mr. Speaker, I bring this poster on the floor as a reminder. Let me 
say to you today and my fellow colleagues that we have spent over 800 
billion taxpayer dollars, over 2,200 American servicemembers have died, 
and over 20,000 of our troops have been severely wounded. The waste, 
fraud, and abuse is just as bad, if not worse, today than at the very 
beginning of 2002.
  Now, some 300 additional marines, mainly from Camp Lejeune in my 
district, have been deployed to Afghanistan this spring, and we have 
had no discussion of that on the floor of the House. Mr. Speaker, I am 
calling on Paul Ryan as Speaker of the House to permit a new debate on 
our future involvement in Afghanistan and whether or not our young men 
and women should be sent to war, as there are more than 300 Members of 
the House of Representatives that were not here in 2001 that have never 
had a debate or a vote on Afghanistan and the policy of Afghanistan.
  It is time that the Congress interject itself. It is our 
constitutional responsibility to send our young men and women to die 
for this country, and yet we do not ever have a debate. That is why the 
bill that Mr. Garamendi and I have put in, H.R. 1666, will simply say 
that the House will have a debate on whether we should or should not be 
in Afghanistan.
  Mr. Speaker, I don't know why that is asking too much because it is 
our constitutional duty. Nothing that we vote on in this House of 
Representatives is as sacred as sending a young man or woman to die for 
this country.

                              {time}  1030

  I have sent a letter to Paul Ryan as recently as yesterday asking him 
to please give us the ability that we have taken the oath to debate 
war. And the Speaker of the House can order the committees of 
jurisdiction to send an authorization of military force to the floor of 
the House for debate.
  Mr. Speaker, for all of our men and women in uniform, all of the 
families of our men and women in uniform who have died for this 
country, please, Congress, let's join together, Republican and 
Democrat, and let's debate the future of Afghanistan.

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