Statement on the 2007 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill

Our troops must be provided with the best possible training and best possible equipment when they are put into harm's way in defense of our nation.  As such, Congress should have today passed an unencumbered appropriations bill to fully fund the needs of U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Votes on the U.S. mission in Iraq and non-emergency domestic spending priorities should have been held separately.  I am deeply disappointed to say that the needs of our troops are being held hostage by domestic politics. 

On an issue of life-and-death importance such as the War on Terrorism, Members of Congress must vote their conscience and their convictions.  H.R. 1591, an "emergency" spending bill passed today in the full House by a vote of 218 to 212, jeopardizes the mission of our troops in Iraq by establishing politically-driven deadlines for withdrawal.  Advertising to our enemies a date certain for withdrawal-in this case, August of 2008 or even sooner-simply encourages and emboldens them.   

The process by which the votes to pass H.R. 1591 were secured is also something that cannot go unnoted.  Officially entitled the "U.S. Troop Readiness Act," H.R. 1591 contains billions and billions of dollars in spending that has nothing to do with U.S. troop readiness.  Extraneous provisions include $120 million for the shrimp industry, $100 million for citrus growers, $74 million for peanut storage, $25 million for spinach producers and handlers, and $35 million for NASA.  Total, H.R. 1591 contains $20 billion more in spending than was requested by the President. 

My vote of "no" today was my vote of conscience and conviction.  I wish I could have voted for a true military readiness bill, with separate votes on the issues of withdrawal from Iraq and domestic spending priorities, but these opportunities were not presented.  As the process moves forward, I ask House leaders to reconsider both the substance of this bill and the process by which it was passed.