Date: 2007-01-22
Speaker: PATRICK MURPHY (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Pennsyl

vania. Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman from Arkansas for this opportunity and for allowing me to serve on that task force that we formed to present this bill this week. this Operation Iraqi Freedom cost accountability resolution. As I was seeking to prepare my remarks. I could not help but think about Mr. SCOTT from the great State of Georgia when he talked about that Constitution. That is the Constitution that every soldier. every airmen. every marine takes .note to support and defend against all enemies. foreign and domestic. I appreciate that. That is the Constitution I had the great opportunity to talk about and teach about every single day at the United States Military Academy at West Point. and talking about those first three articles of our Constitution that lays out the framework. that separation of powers that we talk about. There is a reason why Article I was the Congress and Article II was the President and Article III was the judiciary. Those two main goals of the U.S. Congress is to. one. declare war. but two is the purse strings. that budget that you talked so eloquently about. So I appreciate you bringing that up. and I hope we can make this happen this week. I do believe that we will get many of our colleagues. not just on our side of the aisle. but also on the other side of the Chamber as well. Mr. Speaker. I rise today to talk about the war in Iraq. and I want to talk today because the Blue Dogs. the Blue Dog Democrats. the fiscally conservative Democrats. stay focused on two things: one. fiscal responsibility. and. two. a strong national defense. The legislation that we are discussing this week. which I will have the opportunity to introduce. tackles both of these issues. Mr. Speaker. we have spent over $360 billion in Iraq over the course of the last 4 years. EJ 2100 Along with the casualty reports and the terrible news on the ground. we are getting reports about money lost and weapons missing. Last week. as a member of the Armed Services Committee. we heard from Stuart Bowen. the Special Inspector General for Iraqi reconstruction. He told those of us at the hearing that as much as 15 percent of the billions of dollars that we were spending in Iraq has vanished. and as many as 14.000 weapons sent to the Iraqis have gone missing because of mismanagement and fraud. That is enough weaponry to arm an entire division of the al Sadr militia. This isnt just about money. it is about the safety of our troops as well. Mr. Speaker. it is long past time that we kept track of the money and the weapons that we are giving to the Iraqis and to replace the fraud. waste and abuse with proper oversight. responsibility and accountability. The legislation that the Blue Dogs are introducing this week addresses the glaring lack of oversight and accountability in Iraq and addresses how our taxpayer dollars are spent on the war. It puts forward commonsense proposals that ensure fewer. resources are wasted and more resources get to the troops in the field. This bill contains measures everyohe can agree on. regardless of their political party. American families are frustrated with the war in Iraq. and this legislation will go a long way toward providing some meaningful solutions. Another thing that this legislation does is urge the establishment of a Truman Committeetype commission to track and curb the waste. fraud and abuse in Iraq. In the 1940s. thenSenator Harry Truman established a committee that wasnt very popular at the time. Senator Trumans work reportedly saved $11 billion. and eventually landed him on the cover of Time magazine. Now. Mr. Speaker. none of us here. none of us Blue Dogs here. are looking to be on the front of a magazine cover. but we are looking for an end to the mismanagement in Iraq and in the war. As you know. this issue hits very close to home for me. I served in Baghdad. Iraq. in 2003 to 2004 as a member of the 82nd Airborne Division. Second Brigade Combat Team. On our team. we lost 19 men. men that made the ultimate sacrifice. Part of what we did in Iraq was to train the Iraqi National Defense Corps. At the time that we were training them back in that summer of 2003. they didnt have uniforms. so we took the initiative to give them hats. Chicago White Sox hats. so that we could identify them as a unit. They didnt have uniforms. There was no oversight. There was no thought process. But our soldiers on the ground took the initiative to at least give them something that would distinguish them. At our hearing. Special Inspector Bowen revealed one example of $75 million so grossly mismanaged by the Iraqi Police Academy that it had to be knocked down before it was even put to use. That is $75 million in American taxpayer money that is just thrown to the wayside. Mr. Speaker. it is time for answers. and it is time for accountability.