May 24, 2007

Congressman Pitts Supports Troop Funding, Opposes Pork Add-Ons

Washington—Congressman Joe Pitts (R, PA-16) today voted in favor of the provision in H.R. 2206, the war supplemental bill, that provides the funding requested by the President for our troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Congressman Pitts voted against a separate provision in the same bill that provided roughly $20 billion in unrequested, non-military spending.  His statement follows:

“After more than 100 days of stalling and political game-playing on the part of Congressional Democrats, I’m glad to see them finally bring up a bill that provides our troops with the funding they need, without setting arbitrary surrender dates.  While I voted against the non-military pork barrel spending that Democrats added to this bill, I was pleased to support the funding our troops need to do the tough job we’ve asked them to do.”   

More Information

The Democratic House leadership created a special rule governing consideration of this legislation.  Under this rule, two votes were required in order to pass the legislation:

·        The first vote was on roughly $20 billion of unrelated, non-military spending.  Congressman Pitts voted against this provision.

·        The second vote was on the roughly $100 billion requested by the President for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Congressman Pitts voted for this provision.

Both provisions passed and were included in the final version of the bill, bringing the total amount of approved funding in the bill to $120 billion.  Under the Democratic rule governing consideration of the bill, a vote on the combined provisions was not required for final passage.  The bill did not contain language setting arbitrary timetables for withdrawal from Iraq.

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