Congressional Record UNUM

E PLURIBUS

United States

of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 112th

 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION

b This symbol represents the time of day during the House proceedings, e.g., b 1407 is 2:07 p.m.

Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor.

.

H6071 

Vol. 158 WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012 No. 127 

House of Representatives 

The House met at noon and was 

called to order by the Speaker pro tempore (Mr. WOMACK

f 

). 

DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO 

TEMPORE 

The SPEAKER pro tempore laid before the House the following communication from the Speaker: 

WASHINGTON, DC, 

September 19, 2012. 

I hereby appoint the Honorable STEVE

WOMACK to act as Speaker pro tempore on 

this day. 

JOHN A. BOEHNER, 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

f 

MORNING-HOUR DEBATE 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of January 17, 2012, the Chair will now recognize Members from lists submitted by 

the majority and minority leaders for 

morning-hour debate. 

The Chair will alternate recognition 

between the parties, with each party 

limited to 1 hour and each Member 

other than the majority and minority 

leaders and the minority whip limited 

to 5 minutes each, but in no event shall 

debate continue beyond 1:50 p.m. 

f 

END THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The 

Chair recognizes the gentleman from 

Massachusetts (Mr. MCGOVERN) for 5 

minutes. 

Mr. MCGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, for 

several years now I have come to the 

floor of the House and called for an end 

to the war in Afghanistan, the longest 

war in the history of the United States. 

I have been joined by others—some 

Democrats, some Republicans, some 

liberals, some conservatives—who have 

consistently raised their voices in opposition to the war. 

Today, once again, I stand here in 

the aftermath of more senseless 

killings of Americans, not only by 

Taliban forces, but by forces associated 

with the Afghan Government—a government we support and are told to 

trust. 

It is hard to believe that in the midst 

of a Presidential campaign so little is 

being said about the war. During the 

Republican National Convention, nominee Mitt Romney never once mentioned the war or the troops in his acceptance speech—not even a sentence, 

not a phrase, nothing. As one who has 

been to Afghanistan twice, met with 

our troops, talked to returning veterans and been to visit them in the 

hospital, I find that silence shocking 

and offensive. 

I also find offensive the fact that this 

House of Representatives has refused 

to even debate this issue. When the Department of Defense authorization bill 

came to the floor earlier this year, the 

Republican leadership of this House refused to allow a bipartisan amendment 

that I and WALTER JONES of North 

Carolina offered. That amendment 

called for an accelerated withdrawal of 

American forces from Afghanistan. The 

chairman of the Rules Committee at 

the time said there were a lot of other 

important issues to be debated on the 

defense bill. My question is: What in 

the world is more important than this 

war? 

The Afghan Government is one of the 

most corrupt in the world. Our troops 

have already accomplished their mission, not only ridding Afghanistan of al 

Qaeda, but killing Osama bin Laden. 

By the way, they got him in Pakistan, 

not Afghanistan. So why are we still 

there? 

There is a culture in Washington 

that engulfs both Republicans and 

Democrats; it is a culture that makes 

it easy to go to war but impossible to 

get out. 

There is no question that ending the 

war in Afghanistan will be messy; 

there is no nice, neat way to do it. 

There will be no signing of a peace 

treaty, no grand parade. 

The President tells us that we will 

turn over control of security operations to the Afghans by 2014, but it is 

unclear how many U.S. forces will remain or what their role will be. 

And Mitt Romney says nothing. 

Mr. Speaker, there ought to be a 

major portion of this Presidential campaign dedicated to the issue of Afghanistan. Vague deadlines or generalities 

no longer suffice. Too many brave 

American service men and women have 

paid with their lives. And while candidates talk about the debt our government carries, no one points out that we 

borrow the billions to pay for this war. 

We don’t even pay for it; it goes on the 

credit card. And we’ve been doing this 

for over a decade in this Congress. We 

can’t spend one additional penny to 

feed hungry children or create a single 

job or build a single bridge without 

finding an offset; yet when it comes to 

war, there are no offsets, no new revenue, just another blank check. Something is terribly wrong with this picture. 

Finally, I would remind my colleagues here in the House that we are 

all responsible for this war, and we are 

complicit in the silence, lack of debate, 

and lack of oversight. That is wrong. 

We owe our service men and women so 

much better. We owe this country better. 

End the war and bring our troops 

home now. 

f 

CONGRATULATING NATIONAL 

HISPANA LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE ON THE CELEBRATION OF 

25TH ANNIVERSARY 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The 

Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 

California (Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD) for 5 

minutes. 

Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. Mr. Speaker, 

as we celebrate Hispanic Heritage 


smartinez on DSK6TPTVN1PROD with HOUSE