Washington, DC - Tonight, the House of Representatives passed an emergency supplemental bill that will fund our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan through spring 2009, provide a new GI bill for our veterans and give aid to unemployed workers. The bill includes $183.9 billion in outstanding requests from President Bush and $2.65 billion added for disaster relief in the aftermath of the devastating tornadoes and floods that hit the Midwest. Congressman John D. Dingell (D-MI15) made the following statement on the bill:

“Madam Speaker, the Iraq War has now entered its sixth year.  During this time more than 4,000 soldiers have died, including 149 from Michigan, almost 30,000 have been injured, and tens of thousands more will suffer mental scars for years to come.  The stress of multiple deployments has strained our military, and our military families.  Many of our brightest young officers are leaving the military for careers that allow them to have a family, something that is difficult if not impossible when they are being asked to return to Iraq every twelve months.  In addition, the economic cost of this war has been nothing short of staggering.  The United States has already spent more than five hundred billion dollars in Iraq, or about $5000 for every household in America.  Our children and our grandchildren will be paying off this debt for years to come. 

“Those who are serving our country in Iraq are performing admirably under difficult circumstances. We all know that our inability to secure a solution to ethnic and religious violence that is plaguing Iraq, and our failure to broker a political solution amongst the various factions in that country, is not the fault of the troops, but is the fault of the President and the civilian leadership that has continuously failed to provide our servicemen and women with a successful strategy that would lead to a victory in Iraq.

“I am extremely disappointed that funding for the War is not being conditioned upon a timeline for withdrawal, or a prohibition on the use of torture.  I am dismayed that on a day when it is announced that four oil companies will be given lucrative, no bid contracts in Iraq we are not holding contractors operating in Iraq responsible for fraud and other criminal activity that we know has occurred.  And frankly I am shocked that Congress is failing to exercise its authority to stop the construction of permanent military bases in Iraq, and require the President to submit any long term security agreement he reaches with the government of Iraq to Congress for approval.  For too long this President has been given a blank check with which to pursue his Iraq policies, and I cannot support any legislation which will allow him to continue to drag us deeper into a conflict that the majority of Americans and Iraqis no longer support. 

“I support the decision to include in this legislation funding for other important Democratic priorities that will help boost our economy, and am pleased that the Democratic Leadership has found a way not to hold this critically domestic spending hostage to funding for the War.  This will allow members to vote their conscience on both the War and the domestic spending.  Overall, these domestic measures make up only a small fraction of the total cost of the bill, but they are targeted to make a big impact here at home.  Not only will they give much needed assistance to the unemployed, veterans, and other vulnerable people, but these provisions will play an important role in stimulating the lagging economy. 

“For example, the supplemental package includes the majority of the provisions in my legislation to place a temporary moratorium on seven regulations recently issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).  If allowed to stay in place, these regulations would reduce or eliminate payments for services for vulnerable Americans and the institutions that serve them.  The regulations would hurt children with disabilities, people with mental illness, those with multiple care needs, people attempting to transition from an institution to a community living environment, and people with disabilities by cutting the services they need to remain in their community. 

“In Michigan, the rehabilitation regulation would cut services for 15,000 children with special needs and eliminate rehabilitation services for another 29,000 developmentally disabled adults and children living in the community.  It would also eliminate access to critical community services and resources for 23,600 adults and 5,100 children living in group homes or supported independent living arrangements. 

“Unfortunately, the moratorium on the Administration’s Medicaid hospital outpatient department rule was dropped from this legislative package. This means that critical funding for desperately needed health programs, particularly the clinics that keep people out of emergency rooms, will be jeopardized.  I will continue to work to ensure that the moratorium on this rule finds its way into law.

“I also support additional funding for FDA. This immediate infusion of cash is an important first step toward protecting American consumers in this increasingly globalized market.  Significant additional funds will still be needed in the coming years if we are to remedy the dangerous mismatch between FDA’s resources and the challenge it confronts.

“The supplemental will also contain legislation I cosponsored to extend Unemployment Compensation, a provision that will greatly help the residents of Michigan’s 15th Congressional District which I have the honor of serving.  The National Employment Law Project projects that from May 2008 through March 2009, more than 162,000 workers will exhaust their benefits in Michigan, and that currently over 64,000 have already exhausted this benefit.  By including this legislation in today’s supplemental package Congress will be helping 226,590 workers in Michigan who desperately need the extra boost, while also giving a much needed boost to the economy. 

“This bill will also provide expanded GI Benefits for Veterans Education, restoring the promise of a four year college education to those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.  As a veteran of World War II, I know how instrumental the original GI Bill was in expanding economic opportunity, growing the middle class, and creating a strong and vibrant post-war economy.  The President and some of his Republican colleagues, including Senator McCain, have been opposed to providing increased educational opportunities to today’s generation of veterans because they fear it will discourage men and women currently serving from reenlisting.  I find it highly disturbing that the President and his colleagues would threaten to withhold these much needed benefits to those who have served our country so admirably, and I would advise them that the quickest way to fix our military’s retention problem would be to put an end to the misguided Iraq war that has so seriously damaged morale.”

# # #