| Washington D.C.- Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Chairman of the Republican Study Committee, today called on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to explain House Ways & Means Chairman Charlie Rangel’s (D-NY) assertion that the Democrat leadership included over $20 billion of pork in H.R. 1591 – The Iraq War Supplemental –to push the bill (which includes Rep. Murtha’s slow bleed strategy to choke off funding for American servicemen) through the House of Representatives.
The comments, made on NBC’s Meet the Press on April 1, 2007, are as follows:
Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Chairman of the Republican Study Committee, today called on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to explain House Ways & Means Chairman Charlie Rangel’s (D-NY) assertion that the Democrat leadership included over $20 billion of pork in H.R. 1591 – The Iraq War Supplemental –to push the bill (which includes Rep. Murtha’s slow bleed strategy to choke off funding for American servicemen) through the House of Representatives.
The comments, made on NBC’s Meet the Press on April 1, 2007, are as follows:
Tim Russert: The House voted for funding for the war with a date certain, March of ’08, to begin a withdrawal of U.S. troops. But in that bill was $20 billion of so-called pork: money for cricket infestation, tours of the capitol, security at the national convention, peanut crops. Why would the Democrats put that kind of money in such a serious bill?
Rep. Charlie Rangel: Because they needed the votes. That bill, we lost so many Democrats, one, because people thought we went too far and other's because we didn't go far enough. So a lot of things had to go into a bill that certainly those of us who respect great legislation did not want in there…
Hensarling, a leading critic of the questionable Democrat bill, called on Speaker Pelosi to address Chairman Rangel’s assertion and to submit a clean bill to the House of Representatives:
“Chairman Rangel’s assertion is a serious charge and must be addressed by Speaker Pelosi immediately. There are few accusations more serious than the majority party inserting billions into a troop funding bill in order to influence votes and force an unpopular strategy through Congress. Congress was not intended to act as Commander-in-Chief for very good reason. Our nation is at war and cannot allow military command decisions to depend on peanut storage funding and federal shrimp payouts.
“If Speaker Pelosi and the Democrat majority wants to bring home our troops immediately, the Constitution grants them the power of the purse. It does not grant them the power to act as Commander-in-Chief.
“In light of these charges, I call on Speaker Pelosi to address these assertions and submit a clean troop funding bill to the House of Representatives that is focused on providing our troops in harms way the support they new and securing our homeland from the threats that we face.”
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