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October 2, 2007
TANNER'S BIPARTISAN BILL ON IRAQ PASSES HOUSE
Binding Bill Requires Report Within
60 Days on Redeployment Planning
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives approved Congressman John Tanner’s bipartisan bill to increase Congressional oversight of the Iraq war Tuesday by a vote of 377-46.
H.R. 3087 mandates that the Administration report to Congress within 60 days on the status of its planning for the redeployment of U.S. troops and requires further reports every 90 days thereafter. Tanner introduced the bill in July with Reps. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) and Phil English (R-PA) and other bipartisan sponsors. The bill passed the House Armed Services Committee July 27 with a bipartisan, 55-2 vote.
“Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Guardsmen and Marines are not dying in the name of the Republican Conference or Democratic Caucus, but they are dying in the name of the United States of America,” Tanner said during House floor debate. “We owe them a unified Congress to help them. This bill is a unifying factor here that starts us on the road to behaving as Americans first and political partisans second. Their sacrifice demands nothing less than that.
“A big bipartisan vote today, I think, will begin this unification process we so desperately need in this country.”
Tanner, who served four years in the U.S. Navy and 26 years in the Tennessee Army National Guard, has helped lead bipartisan meetings on Iraq in recent weeks. Tanner and Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) recently announced a “Bipartisan Compact on Iraq,” signed by 28 House Members, 14 from each party. The compact expresses agreement on several principles for Iraq debate, including that the House should conduct bipartisan dialogue on Iraq, that it is important for troops to have proper recuperation time between deployments and that additional diplomatic efforts are necessary.
Supporters of the bill expressed hope the Senate would introduce and vote on similar legislation, Tanner said.
Tanner represents Tennessee’s 8th Congressional district in West and Middle Tennessee. He serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and as chairman of the U.S. delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
Below is a transcript of Tanner's remarks Tuesday.
Below is the text of his speech, which can also be viewed online at http://www.house.gov/tanner/press110-048.htm.
The point of this is that our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Guardsmen, Marines, are not dying in the name of the Republican Conference or the Democratic Caucus; they are dying in the name of the United States of America.
We owe them a unified Congress to help them. This bill is a unifying factor here that starts us on the road to behaving as Americans first and political partisans second. Their sacrifice demands nothing less than that. I have a sense of urgency about this that I’m afraid did not come through in the hearing, particularly from Ambassador Crocker, not that I'm criticizing him. I think he's doing a fine job and I have no higher regard for anybody in uniform, past, present or future, than General Petraeus, but the sense of urgency I have is to bring us together so that we can move in a meaningful, constructive way as Congress to play a role in the civilian leadership aspects and management of this conflict.
As has been noted previously, it requires the Pentagon to in some way bring Congress in in a meaningful way really on the strategy of the war for the first time. As I said earlier today, the strategy of waiting for the Shi’a and Sunni in Iraq that try to sit down and work something out in a central government in Baghdad is a less-than-viable option when our young men and women are patrolling the streets of Baghdad, dying every day, and we’re asking the taxpayers of this country to spend $3 billion a week for people who, half the time, boycott their sessions. To say we're going to do this until maybe [the Iraqis] can get together, is not in my judgment something that we can endorse.
So, Mr. Speaker, the original authorization which provided basically two things – one is to remove the threat posed by the government of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, who has been captured, tried, convicted and executed, and to enforce the U.N. resolutions with respect to the weapons of mass destruction – having been accomplished, it's not the war that we haven't won, it's the peace that we're having trouble with.
And I want us to get together as a Congress to move forward to win the peace. That's what our mission is now. And the strategic mission that the Administration had been following, the civilian leadership, is not working out too well. Four and a half years later one can't leave the green zone without getting one's head shot off.
I think we need the Congress to engage in a constructive, meaningful way. I think this vehicle will allow that to happen, and, therefore, Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you and all those people who had anything whatsoever to do with it. A big bipartisan vote today, I think, will begin this unification process we so desperately need in this country.
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Contact: Randy Ford, 202.225.4714
