John Murtha

Mr. MURTHA

Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Chairman, I agree with the gentleman. The gentleman's got an important point, and we will certainly consider it in conference.

Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Chairman, I yield back my time.

Mr. MURTHA. If the gentleman would yield, I also oppose the amendment.

Mr. MURTHA. I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. MURTHA. The Department of Defense, the intelligence and security communities, other Federal agencies, and industrial clients in the recent past, CTC was awarded the operations contract through full and open competition for both the National Defense Center for Environmental Excellence and the Navy Metalworking Center. The value of the two contracts, $250 million and $150 million respectively. The core funding for each is included in the President's budget. Last year, CTC won over 50 competitive Federal awards, culminating in a $65 million contract from the Air Force Advanced Power Technology Office. I oppose the amendment. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. MURTHA. You were using this as an example, the RSC. You were using those as stopping earmarks. I am just saying that the Members come to the committee. We have a $459 billion bill. We find all kinds of shortages. I will give you an example of what we just found. I went down to five bases, sent the staff down later, and we found that they didn't have the money to take the troops back when they come back after BRAC. We put $3 billion in that. This is an earmark. Years ago, we put a couple billion in for ships. That is an earmark, and the Navy didn't want them. And yet, the SL-7s, if we wouldn't have had them in 1991, we would not have been able to get there. We have confidence in the Members. Under the Constitution, Congress is responsible for appropriations. They make recommendations, but it is a bureaucracy that makes recommendations. The President doesn't make recommendations. He sends long lists, the White House sends long lists over to OMB. And anybody that has worked at OMB will tell you, billions of dollars, as the gentleman knows, in requests go to OMB. I expect the Members to vet them. We try to vet them the best we can. We know that very few earmarks are not of real value to military. If there is any, we take them out. We have had a few like that, and we take them out as soon as we can. So I don't make apologies for having earmarks. As I say, $456 million went to the RSC. So I don't make apologies. That is the Congress' job. Less than 1 percent of the $459 billion budget in that sense was projects for Members of Congress. And I would think Members of Congress know, as well as the bureaucracy over in the Pentagon and White House know, what needs to be done. And I think the gentleman will have to agree with that. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. MURTHA. I think that is a perfect example of the way things work. When we see something that we think is not as valuable as something else is, we change it.

Mr. MURTHA. The administration says a lot of things that I disagree with.

Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Chairman, I agree with the gentleman. The gentleman was at the forefront of Predator and many other programs which the Defense Department didn't ask for. And I want to say to the gentleman I had to find out that the young people in the schools where the bases are needed counseling. General Casey went out and found the same thing, and then he called me and said we need to take care of it. We already took care of it. We take care of all kinds of things like that. The people that work in the hospitals that Bill and I visit all the time were hurting so badly, they needed help. We put extra money in for it. And when you talk about programs that you may not think directly affects the Defense Department, breast cancer research, prostate cancer research, those diseases affect military families. Diabetes. Not long ago, I asked the Air Force, How many do you think you have with diabetes in the Air Force? And they said 40,000. The Surgeon General went back and said 150,000. That is in all the families. We started a research program to see how we get them under control because it saves not only emotional strain and physical strain but it saves money. So we do these kinds of things all the time, changing the direction of the Defense Department with health care things, with educational facilities that are important to the military.

Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. MURTHA. The Center's analytical tools were developed at NDIC and are among the best in the industry, performing over 500 missions involving drug trafficking, money laundering, terrorism, fraud in the health care industry, and child abduction. Today, the NDIC document exploitation program analysts are supporting the U.S. Army to facilitate criminal investigations being conducted in Iraq. NDIC developed computer software. It was recently adopted by the U.S. Army in Iraq to exploit valuable information from captured computers of insurgents and members of al Qaeda. And let me say to the gentleman how this started. President Bush felt we needed a centralized place, and they wanted to put it in Washington. I felt, with a new communications, we didn't need it in Washington, and they decided to put it in Johnstown, and I think it has done very well. And we have argued this before, so I oppose the amendment. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. MURTHA. Let me tell you, the Bush administration made a few mistakes in the past.

Mr. MURTHA

Mr. MURTHA. Madam Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Major General Patrick H. Brady for his relentless and selfless service to this country. Major General Brady should be remembered for his heroic display while serving in the Republic of Vietnam, where he went above and beyond his call of duty flying multiple missions into hostile territory to evacuate severely wounded soldiers as an air ambulance pilot. It is estimated that Major General Brady may have evacuated more wounded from the battlefield than anyone in American history, over 5,000. Major General Brady's gallantry and heroism has been well documented and he is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, our Nations second highest award; two Distinguished Service Medals; the Defense Superior Service Medal; the Legion of Merit; six Distinguished Flying Crosses; two Bronze Stars, one for valor; the Purple Heart; 53 Air Medals, one for valor; and the Medal of Honor, the military's highest decoration. While Major General Patrick Brady had a distinguished and honorable military career, I speak today not only to honor those achievements and his 34-year military career, but to recognize his service to our country while not wearing the uniform. Soon Major General Brady will step down as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Citizens Flag Alliance, after more than a decade of phenomenal service. Major General Brady's outstanding ability enabled him to organize and motivate nearly 150 organizations whose sole focus is on passing a Constitutional amendment that would return to the American people the right to protect their flag. He has testified before Congress and worked closely with many Members of Congress to gain support for an amendment that would ban the desecration of the American flag. I commend the Major General for his work and am confident he departs knowing the mission of the Alliance will continue due in no small part to his involvement and diligence. I extend my best wishes to Major General Brady as he turns his attention toward his family. America will be forever indebted to him for his altruistic service to this great Nation.

Mr. MURTHA

Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bill that Bill Young and I worked out. Let me say this to the Members: We did everything we could to work this out. We worked diligently. We sent a bill to the White House. They vetoed it. We've done everything we could do to change it. I feel a direction change in the air. I see the Iraqis are starting to talk about redeployment. I see the administration starting to talk about other countries being involved. I see them asking the U.N. to get involved, something that should have happened a long time ago. But the point is, I see a new political diplomatic effort which is beginning to take effect here that's going to make a big difference. But, in the meantime, we have to fund the troops. They'll run out in the next few weeks. They'll run out of money. There's no question about that. We send our staff continually to find out exactly how long it'll go. There'll be tremendous problems if we weren't to fund the troops. And let me say what's in this bill. There's $94 billion for the Department of Defense military, and $24 billion of that is for reset and re-equipment; $7.7 billion for four critical initiatives; $1.1 billion for family housing allowances; $1.6 billion for strategic reserve readiness. We're trying to change. We're trying to stabilize the military. We've already found with some of the work that we've done a couple of billion dollars in contracting that we can use and divert, and Bill Young and I were talking about this earlier today; $1.6 billion for strategic reserve; $34 billion for MRAP. That's the new vehicle that resists the IED attacks. Almost $2 billion in additional funding for health care; we have funded the health care that was not funded last year. We put extra money in for Walter Reed. We put extra money in for care giving. We put extra money in for all kind of things. But let me just say this: I saw the other day, to show you the kind of problem we have, I saw the other day a young fellow who got 20 percent disability when he got out of the military. And then he went to the VA, and he got 100 percent disability. But the point is, he gets no health care for his family, and he has four children. So even though he gets 100 percent disability and he's taking care of himself, and he'll probably be paralyzed at some point because he's getting worse instead of better, and these are the kinds of things we're trying to fix. So we have several problems. First of all, we have the short-term problem; we have to take care of the funding for the military for the next 4 months. As Chairman Obey says, we need to take care for an extra 2 months from the original bill we passed. Then we need to start to work on a nurse shortage. We're looking at paying the nurses $25,000 more. We're looking at doctor shortages. We are looking at an administrative shortage in the hospital. We, finally, Bill Young and I worked, and we got General Casey going to all the hospitals finding out what the shortages are. We've got a lot of work to do here, and this bill starts us in that direction. But let me just end this by saying, we're now in a position where I see that, by September, we'll be able to judge. When we pass our bill, and the 2008 bill will come up as a basic defense bill, then we're going to hold the supplemental until September. By that time, we will know that the surge is working or not working. And I predict, and I've been right in every one of my predictions, that incidents are going to continue to increase; oil production will not be above pre-war level; and that electricity will not be above pre-war level. And incidents will continue to increase, and more and more people will be killed by IEDs. So I do not wish for a bad result, but I see the administration finally changing and finally recognizing this can't be won militarily. I think we're moving in the right direction. It's very painful because people are frustrated. They'd like to see this thing over overnight. All of us are frustrated. But we have to take what we can get, and I think here we have a good bill, as good a bill as we could put together. The two bills put together are good bills. I hope that everybody will vote for both bills because one takes care of the troops and the funding that's necessary, and the other takes care of all the other, the change in direction that we're trying to get in the military. I would request that all the Members vote for both amendments to the bill.

Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Speaker, let me say that the Iraqi Legislature is going on a 2-month vacation. A 2-month vacation they are taking. We have been there 4\1/2\ years. And the people that give us the report is not Jack Murtha. The people that give us the report is the Joint Staff. And if you read with real glasses, you see what is happening in Iraq. You see incidents erupt. You see people getting killed. You see that nine people were killed just yesterday. You see that the IEDs are killing more people. More people were killed in the last 4 months than at any other time during the war. We are trying to help you. We are trying to change the direction. We are trying to win it politically. We are trying to win this war. That is what we are trying to do. You can't win it if you don't look at it objectively. The gentleman is looking at it with rosy glasses instead of looking at it realistically. He is not looking at it objectively.

Mr. MURTHA

Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Speaker, 3 years ago, I would not have voted for this resolution. Two years ago, I would not have voted for this resolution. One year ago, I would have voted for this resolution. But after seeing no progress in Iraq, none, zero, having misrepresentation coming from even the Pentagon, I am beginning to believe it is time that we have to send a very strong message to this administration. The total number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq is 3,382. Killed since President Bush announced his surge is 366. We have lost more people in the last 4 months than we lost in any other period of the war, and that doesn't count the number that have been wounded, and all of us have been out there and seen the ones that have been wounded. The foreign minister of Saudi Arabia in The New York Times last week said, ``We don't see anything happening in Iraq in implementation. Our American friends say there is improvement; improvement in violence, improvement in the level of understanding, improvement in disarming the militia. We don't see it.'' Admiral Fallon, he is the new commander in Iraq, the central commander. Admiral Fallon said last week in the Senate Armed Services Committee, ``Prime Minister Maliki's progress thus far has been disappointing. They are not moving, in my opinion, fast enough to support what we are trying to do. The number one question in my mind is the ability as well as the willingness to do this.'' Now, I said to the Iraqi National Security Adviser when he was here visiting me, I said, Look. I said, Originally we need a diplomatic effort, an international diplomatic effort. I urged him to change the Constitution. I urged him to pass a bill to spread out the oil revenues. He said, Well, it's a slow procedure, and he started talking about how we needed to stay, and he talked about the war, he didn't call it a civil war, the insurgency and the al Qaeda. I said, There is 2,000 al Qaeda. You don't think you can take care of 2,000 al Qaeda when you have in your country 26 million people? I said, Let me tell you a story. My great-grandfather's Civil War hat sits on that shelf there. And I took it out and I showed him that. We fought our own civil war. And then I said, My ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War. They were rag-tag. They didn't have shoes. They fought in cold weather without cold-weather gear. They fought the greatest army in the history at that time, the greatest navy in the history at that time, the greatest empire in history at that time, and we beat them. We beat them by ourselves, with a little help from the French. You have to do this yourself, I said to the National Security Adviser for Iraq. You have to win this yourself. We can't do it for you. I said, Your Parliament takes a 2-month vacation in the middle of a time when it is crucial to the history. The American people, three-fourths of them, are unhappy with what is going on. The Congress more and more. Even some of our Republican friends need to help us convince this President that we need to move in the right direction, we need to change the direction of this war. I see in a news release that the President is now, after all this time, considering benchmarks. After all this time, the President of the United States is saying I'll consider benchmarks. He finally is starting to compromise. He has come off the pedestal and the President is starting to begin to realize that something has to be done to change the direction of this country. All of us want to solve this. All of us want stability in the Middle East. All of us want to do the right thing. But it is not working. Electricity production, below pre-war level. Oil production, below pre- war level. It has been that way for the last 4\1/2\ years. Incidents are up. If you look at the way the incidents have gone, every month they have gone up. They have gone down a little bit, but they have gone up the whole time. And more Americans were killed in the last 4 months than any other period during this war. We need to change direction. We need to send a message. We need to go to conference and have some kind of a conversation with the White House so that they understand. I am glad to see some Republicans went to the White House and spoke the truth to this President and said to him, Mr. President, we need a change. You are destroying the Republican Party. Well, that is one of those things where I won't go there. But let me say this: we need to have a strong vote. We need to vote for this resolution, and then we need to pass the other bill and get on with our business.

Mr. MURTHA

Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Speaker, it's not working. This policy is not working. That's why we want to change direction. I mean, it is one thing to stand here and rhetorically say it's working, say there's progress to make statements. Because the White House says it? Because the Pentagon says it? Let me tell you, the Pentagon wrote and said, ``Further, the lack of timely supplemental funds has limited the Department's ability to properly contract for the reconstitution of equipment for both the active and reserve forces.'' We put extra money in the budget, $17 billion last year. There wouldn't have been any money in the budget to reset. We have no strategic reserve. Our National Guard has only 40 percent of the equipment they need. They can't respond to a national disaster. As a matter of fact, the National Guard in this country couldn't be deployed overseas. The active duty American Armed Forces could not be deployed overseas because we have no strategic reserve. This war has been mishandled. We need accountability. We had a hearing on contracting today, and I have been studying this contracting. Some of the accusations are that the contractors, there's 126,000 contractors in Iraq. We have approximately 140,000 troops there and 126,000 contractors. Now, imagine this. Some of them are making or being paid $600 a day, the contractors, and no accountability. It took us 2 weeks to find out who those contractors were, what they were doing. We still haven't gotten the details of what they're doing or who they are. This is unacceptable. I saw in the book about Blackwater. It said in this book that Ambassador Bremer had 26 Praetorian Guards and those Praetorian Guards made $600 a day. Now, you can imagine them pushing through an area where the Iraqis lived, with their sunglasses on, you know, those little sunglasses that wrap around your eyes, with their khaki uniforms with their AK-47s or whatever weapons they carry. That does not make friends. When I went to Iraq the first time, you could drive around anyplace in the city. Today, you can't drive anyplace. Matter of fact, they fly you from the airport to the Green Zone. We are occupying Saddam Hussein's palaces. We are in the very area where Saddam Hussein occupied and there's no accountability. We need to redeploy to stabilize this situation. We need to get our troops out of the killing zone. We have lost more people in the last 4 months than we lost any other 4 months in the entire war. Now, let me tell you what you're voting against if you vote against this bill. Well, first of all, let me tell you why I say it's not working. Oil production, below pre-war level; oil exports, below pre-war level; electricity production, below pre-war level. Hours of electricity in Baghdad, they had to shut down the Parliament the other day because they didn't have enough electricity. The microphones wouldn't work, and they had no air conditioning inside; and, of course, they have air conditioning in the Green Zone. Potable water, people with potable water, below pre-war level; unemployment rate between 25 and 40 percent; inflation rate in Iraq, 50 percent. Now, here's what you're voting if you vote against this bill. There's $95.5 billion for the troops. There's $12.3 billion for military personnel pay and benefits program. $1.15 billion to cover the full cost of housing allowances, something that was left out last year. We are adding $2 billion to address the training and equipping shortfalls in the forces not deployed. We actually have $4 billion more in this bill than was asked for. We have $2 billion dedicated to the strategic reserve readiness fund. We recommend adding $1 billion for Afghanistan, where the real war should be fought. We have $25.6 billion in this bill, and if you vote against it, you're voting against $25.6 billion purchases to increase the President's request by $800 million. That's the acquisition. The proposal allocates $3 billion. Let me tell you, the Pentagon asked for $1.3 billion. We added $1.2 billion for MRAPs. What are MRAPs? MRAPs are the V-shaped vehicles that resist IEDs. Now, some of your children have been there. Some of your sons and daughters have been there. This the Pentagon says is their most important equipment, and we added twice as much money as they asked for in the budget, and if you vote against this, you are voting against that very equipment. We passed legislation that fully funded everything at $4 billion more and the President vetoed it. He should have signed that bill. For the Army procurement accounts, we approved a total of $15.8 billion, more for Humvees, more for Strykers. Somebody mentioned Strykers. Let me tell you something, if it hadn't been for the Subcommittee on Defense, there wouldn't have been any Strykers for the Army because they wanted them, but they weren't willing to ask for the money. The defense health programs, somebody mentioned Walter Reed. All of us have been to Walter Reed. All of us have seen the young people who have been shattered by this war. All of us have seen the people who go to Walter Reed and are taken care of so well. None of us knew about Building 18, but we put money in the budget for three or four years in a row, and it was mishandled. It didn't go to fixing up the places that should have been fixed up. I just went out there a week ago, and I met with the doctors. The doctors said we don't have enough doctors. They said we don't have enough nurses, we don't have enough administrative people, at Walter Reed today. Why? Because they can't afford to pay them as much as they would on the outside. We put $2.1 billion above the budget request for Walter Reed. $450 million for post-traumatic stress. Of all the other injuries that are suffered in Iraq, this is going to be the most damaging, the things that people will have to live with the most. I have seen young people that came back from Iraq that are having a hard time adjusting, and they were not in the heaviest contact. The psychologists that appeared before the committee said to me, 3 months in this situation is a long time, 3 months they start getting post-traumatic stress. Predictions are we will have 65,000 Americans, not Iraqis, Americans that are going to have post-traumatic stress. You wonder why we want to bring this to an end? We want to change the direction? You wonder why we want to convince the President that it's not working? Why we have to have a diplomatic surge instead of a military surge? We put $450 million in for brain damage to see if we can't find ways to help the people with brains that have been damaged. If you vote against this, you're voting against that. Amputee care, $62 million for amputee care; $12 million for care givers. The care givers at Walter Reed, at Landstuhl are suffering because they see this all the time. They see these young people coming in, and they are shattered. Let me tell you this, finally. I went down to Fort Hood, Fort Bragg, Fort Stewart; and I saw at those bases these families who inspire me, these families who I can't say enough about them. And they gathered around me and we talked about their problems. It had just been announced they are going to extend the troops for 15 months. Now, Secretary Gates made the right decision because he wasn't going to leave them at home. Because of what we have done here in the Congress, he is now leaving people at home for at least a year, and let me tell you that's essential for these people who have to go back. Some of these troops in the 82nd Airborne will be deployed for the fourth and the fifth time. They're individuals. They're people. They're people suffering from the horrendous impact of this war, and I ask you to vote for this because we want to hold this President accountable for this war, hold him accountable and convince him we need compromises.

Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Speaker, let me say, I see the Vice President has gone to Iraq to urge the Iraqis not to take a 2-month vacation. I mean, we have got to put some pressure on them. It hasn't been working. I mean, I see the Vice President also said, he said they seem to be more enthused than they used to be. Let me tell you something, we have got to do something more than be enthused when the Americans are in the killing zone. That's the problem. If this amendment were adopted, we would lose all our leverage on the Iraqis. The Iraqis could go on as they have, and one of the biggest problems we have right now is that every time the Iraqis don't do something, the Americans are put in a killing zone. So I would urge the Members to reject this motion to recommit.

Mr. MURTHA

Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Speaker, we will have appropriated in one year, $1.2 trillion. This bill that we are voting on today is called the Iraq Accountability Act. Now, it's fine to have loyalty to the President of the United States. All of us know how important loyalty is; all of us know how important it is to be loyal to our friends, but there comes a time when this independent Congress has to stand up to the President of the United States. We will have appropriated $95.5 billion. And if you vote against this bill, you're voting against that which is $4 billion more. You're voting for loyalty to the President, but you're voting against $4 billion more, $95.5 billion for the amount for the Department of Defense programs. If you vote for President Bush, you're voting against $12.3 billion for military personnel pay and benefits, everything the President asked for. If you vote for loyalty to President Bush, you're voting against $1.2 billion, mostly to cover housing allowances which were left out of the last bill. The total amount provided is $13.5 billion. If you vote for President Bush and loyalty to President Bush, the conference committee has added $1.15 billion to cover the full cost of housing allowances. The committee has also added $2.3 billion to cover the full cost of 36,000 Army troops and 9,000 Marines. If you vote to be loyal to the President, you're voting against those troops. When you talk about support the troops, I am talking about supporting the troops. Conferees recommend $50.4 billion for military operations even more than the President requested. We are adding $2 billion to address training and equipment shortfall. The chairman of the Armed Services Committee talked about readiness. Right now, we have a tremendous shortfall of equipment. We have no strategic Active Duty Reserve in this country. And we put extra money, we put $2 billion in to start to replenish the strategic reserve. This conference proposes to fully fund the President's request to train and equip Iraqi and Afghanistan troops. If you vote against this bill, if you vote for the President and to be loyal to the President, you're voting not to include $25.6 billion in equipment purchases, $800 million above the President's request. If you vote against this bill, you're voting not to allocate $3 billion to purchase the mine resistant, new vehicle with the V-shape which resists the IED, one of the most important pieces of equipment that we will send to Iraq. We put $400 million for Abrams vehicles, Abrams tank, and we put $768 million for the Strykers. Now, let me talk about defense health. Today, the Subcommittee on Defense just had a hearing on defense health. Every single year, Dr. Chu, the Defense Department shorts the health care system of $2 billion. Every year. Every year, the Congress has to make it up. We have extra money, we have $3.3 billion for the defense health care programs; $2.1 billion above the budget request. If you vote against this bill, you're voting against those requests. $450 million for traumatic stress brain disorders; $450 million for traumatic brain injuries and post traumatic stress; $661 million to cover funding shortfalls created by the Congress in having disapproved the Department's proposed increase in health insurance premiums; fees for military beneficiaries; $62 million for amputee care; $12 million for caregivers. This is an important point. For caregivers. We heard from the Department of Health, from the Defense Department about the problem caregivers have. All of us go to the hospitals as often as we can. I get post traumatic stress seeing these young wounded people. I am inspired by them. I see the families when I went to Fort Bragg and Fort Stewart and Fort Hood. I admire them. I admire their discipline, I admire their courage. I admire their patriotism. But let me tell you something: They're burned out. They're hurting. If you vote against this bill, you're voting not to give them the money that they need. If you vote against this, you're voting against the provision that says no permanent bases in Iraq. If you vote against this, you're voting against 15 percent that comes out of Defense for the contractors. We have 125,000 contractors in Iraq and there has been no oversight, and we had 2 months before we could even find out about the contractors. One of the provisions we put in this bill was a provision that said you can't deploy troops unless they are trained and equipped. You can't deploy troops unless they've had at least a year at home. Now, more and more I am seeing, they are saying that's the most important provision in this bill. They need a year at home to recuperate from their deployment; they need a year at home to retrain and to get ready to make another deployment. The Secretary of Defense made that decision, and we appreciate him making that decision. But at the same time, because of the policy of the White House, he had to make the decision, in order to sustain this deployment he had to make the decision to extend them to 15 months. I hear rumors that he is going to extend them for 18 months. The troops that I talked to, the troops that I talked to just recently, were very frank with me. I said, ``Look, we want to help in any way we can. Tell us what the problems are.'' And they went through the myriad of problems they have with these deployments. These are individuals. These are individual people. They've got families. They have loved ones. One first sergeant said to me, ``I hate to tell my kids I have to go overseas again. I hate to tell the kids.'' One woman in Iraq, and this is in an article in The Washington Post, she sighed and she says, ``This war is a war between the Iraqis,'' she said. Another soldier said, ``We're just interfering and letting our soldiers die.'' I have to say that when you say there is some success in Iraq, we had four of the deadliest months in the history of this 4-year war in Iraq. We had more people killed in the last 4 months than any other period of time during this war. We have had 330 killed since the surge started. And these are individuals. These are not numbers, these are individuals. We have less electricity than we had before the war started, less oil production than we had before the war started, less potable water, higher unemployment. We have a provision in this bill that says the Iraqis have to take over this fight themselves. The Iraqis just maybe killed one of the highest leaders. That's what we want. We want to give them the incentive to take over the security themselves. And let me say what's important on this floor of the United States Congress and what's important to the President of the United States: It is the national security of the United States. That's what's important. It is important that Iraq take over their national security, but our own need concerns me. Our strategic reserve is depleted completely, our troops are burned out, and we need to find a way to do a diplomatic effort, to put an all-out surge in diplomatic efforts in order to bring our troops home as soon as practicable. So I urge the Members to override this veto, and start to bring our troops home as soon as practical.

Mr. MURTHA

Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Speaker, apparently a number of people have not read this bill. I know my friend Bill Young has read it. We have $1.5 billion to cover the full cost of housing allowances for the troops. If you vote against this, you are voting against housing allowances. We have a total of $2.3 billion in this bill to cover the full cost of fielding an additional 36,000 Army troops and 9,000 Marines. If you've read this bill, you'll realize we added $2 billion to address the training and equipment shortfalls in the forces not deployed. One billion dollars is dedicated to purchase Army National Guard equipment. If you vote against it, you're voting against $1 billion for the National Guard. You're voting against an additional $750 million for Afghanistan. You're voting against $2.4 billion with a joint IED task force. In procurement you're voting against the very thing that the military wants most, and that is the new vehicle with the V shape which is resistant to IEDs. Now, let me talk a little bit about IEDs. In the last 4 months, we have lost more troops than any other period during this war. And I am sorry to hear from a friend of mine's wife who called me and said there was a joke on one of the shows last night by a Republican Presidential candidate who said that he brought an IED back and he put it under this guy's desk. That individual owes an apology to every troop that serves in Iraq. When we go to the hospital, all of us, we see burn victims. We see victims that are wounded badly. And many of us don't get an opportunity to see the families. I went to Fort Hood, Fort Bragg, and Fort Stewart. These folks are burned out. The truancy rate is up in the schools. The achievement is down in the schools where our troops' children go. One soldier said to me, a first sergeant, a woman, she says, I hate to tell my children I'm going back to Iraq. They're going back the third and fourth time. A general said to me, ``I can only take 9 months.'' And we're sending them back to 18; I hear rumors that they are going to extend them to 18 months. We have an accountability bill, this is called the ``Iraq accountability bill.'' This war has been so mismanaged that we have the responsibility to force the White House to be accountable. The policy is not set by the military, the policy is set by the White House, and we have to hold the White House accountable for the mistakes that they have made. We will have appropriated $1.2 trillion for the Defense Department in 1 year. We are spending nearly $10 billion a month in Afghanistan and Iraq. We have 126,000 contractors. And it took us 2 months, the committee that funds every cent that is spent in Iraq and Afghanistan had to spend 2 months to find out there were 126,000 contractors. And we told this to the Secretary of Defense. When one of the Members of Congress said, and one of them is making $300,000 a year, one of the contractors, he said, ``That's more than I make.'' Imagine, we've got a contractor making more than the Secretary of Defense makes. We have a contractor that I saw, when I talked to the Cavalry Division that was in Iraq, here is a guy pumping gas, this is what a soldier told me, he gets $25,000 a year, and right beside him was a guy pumping gas for $80,000 a year. This is what I call accountability. We have to hold the White House responsible for accountability. Why do they have 126,000 contractors? Because we don't have enough troops. Why are they extending the troops to 18 months, possibly? And finally, they realized they couldn't send them back before they had a year at home. They had to be trained and they had to be equipped. That is what we say in this bill, we say you've got to be trained and equipped. I had General Pace come up after the last hearing. I said, General, you've got to tell me you're not sending any troops back there untrained and ill-equipped. And I don't know that this conversation made the difference, but a short time later they announced they are going to extend people, and they are not going to send anybody back unless they had a year at home. It is absolutely essential. I talked to some of the wives at Fort Bragg. I got one story from the hospitals about how the service was there, they were able to get service anytime they wanted, within a week they were able to get service. Then I talked to the wives, the officers' wives, I said, after talking to them for a while, how many of you got service in a week? No hands went up. How many did it take over a month? Half the hands went up. We've got to take care of the people at home. Let me tell you something, I get fatigued in going to the hospitals. The caregivers that care for them every day, think what they go through. A nurse called me and said you've got to put some money in the bill, and we did, to take care of caregivers to give them some relief. These caregivers see it every day. So we put $6 million in for Landstuhl program. We put $1 million in for Walter Reed, for Brooke's and for Bethesda. They are burned out. The troops are burned out. What we are trying to do in this bill is hold the White House accountable for the policy mistakes that they made. We went into Iraq without weapons of mass destruction. I believed it. When I went there the first time, I saw a line drawn around Baghdad. They told me they were going to use biological weapons. I believed that. It took me 6 or 7 months to realize we had made a mistake. We went to Afghanistan, it was the right place to go. I am inspired by these troops, I am inspired by their families; but they are burned out and they are bearing as much as they can bear. When we sit here, and one of the previous speakers said ``we.'' I hear this all the time, ``we're fighting,'' ``we're fighting terrorists.'' We are not fighting terrorism, we are sitting here in an air conditioned place while they are out there in dust. And let me tell you about the policy in this latest deployment. I worried. I didn't say anything in public, but I worried. When you send 37 different elements out by themselves among the Iraqis, when you've got interpreters who you don't trust, you are going to expect the kind of disasters you just saw. That's the thing that worries me when you don't have enough troops. And one general said to me, he said, ``If you're there more than 9 months, you start making mistakes.'' Imagine what he's saying? He said, ``I question myself after 9 months.'' A psychologist told us, who came before the committee, he said 3 months in heavy combat, 3 months of going out every day and having IEDs, imagine a Presidential candidate making jokes about IEDs when these kids are blown apart? It's outrageous. Let me tell you something, we owe a great deal of gratitude to these families and these young people who are doing the fighting. It's not ``we'' doing the fighting, it's ``them'' doing the fighting. They deserve accountability from the Congress of the United States, and we are going to demand that from this accountability bill.

Mr. MURTHA

Mr. MURTHA. This Appropriation Committee will have appropriated $1.2 trillion for this war and for the Defense Department in one year. When I came to Congress, we had appropriated $100 billion for defense for the whole year. We keep talking about progress; that's what the military leaders in Iraq talk about. I wish we saw progress. I voted for this war because I believed that our Nation was threatened. Two or three weeks later, I realized that we weren't under any threat; we were misled. There was no threat to our national security. We went in with inadequate forces. I'm the one that found the lack of body armor, 44,000 troops without body armor, without armored Humvees; and now 4 years later, we're arguing about timelines where the Iraqis ought to take over the war themselves. We're arguing about allowing the Iraqis to do what the President agreed to. And we want to set a timetable so that they are forced to agree to it. There is no question in my mind every time the Iraqis stumble, the United States steps in and puts our American troops in between the civil war. I just visited Fort Hood, Fort Stewart and Fort Bragg. The troops are somber. The troops are going to do their job. They're valiant. I am inspired by the troops. But let me tell you, they're burned out. In the schools in Fort Bragg they say they need counseling. In the schools of Fort Bragg they say there's higher truancy. They say the students' achievement has dropped. You know who's suffering? We talk about fighting this war. We're not fighting this war. A very small segment of this population is fighting this war, and they're burned out. I've had troop commanders who were there three times say, we can only spend 10 months in combat and we start making bad decisions; and I believe that. They say there's progress, and I've just seen over 200 killed in 2 days. We've lost more Americans in the last 4 months than any other period during this war. That's not progress. The electricity production is below prewar level. Production of oil is below prewar level. How do you measure? Rhetoric doesn't measure progress. In my estimation, this war has been so mishandled. Congress has an obligation to set a standard, to have accountability. And this bill is called the Iraqi Accountability bill, and that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to hold this administration accountable for the mistakes that they have made. Does anybody know we have 125,000 contractors in Iraq? 125,000. And when we pointed this out to the Secretary of Defense, do you know what he said? He said, ``They're making more money than I make.'' The Secretary of Defense said these contractors are making more money than he makes, 125,000 of them. They couldn't tell the committee for 2 months how many contractors they had. They have got a fellow fueling a truck on one side, and he's making $25,000, and right beside him is a guy making $80,000 fueling a truck. Why is that? Are we meeting our recruiting standards when we need 125,000 people that are contractors in Iraq riding around shooting people, as I saw in the Washington Post the other day, shooting inadvertently at people? They want to kill somebody, this one guy said? That's the face of America? We've lost credibility because of some of these contractors and the actions of these contractors. I say we need to set timelines. We need to set a benchmark. We need to say to the Iraqis, it's time for you to take over and decide your own fate, like we did in our own revolution. I ask Members to vote for this benchmark set by the gentleman from California.

Mr. MURTHA. It's interesting to hear the gentleman say ``we.'' ``We fight.'' ``We aren't going to give up.'' ``We aren't going to surrender.'' Let me tell you something. We are not fighting this war. It's the troops overseas. And when I talk to the families, when I go to the hospital, I see the results of this war. Don't tell me we're fighting this war. It's the troops in the field, a very small segment of the American population that are fighting this war. If the President thinks we should continue the war, he ought to call for a draft and spread it out and let everybody serve in this war, not this small segment making such a sacrifice. Don't tell me we're fighting in this air-conditioned office. We're not fighting this war. They're fighting it. And I'm proud of every one of them. But don't stand here in this air-conditioned facility and say we are fighting this war. I am proud of these troops and what they have done. They have won the war. The mission was accomplished. We cannot win it militarily. It can only be won diplomatically.

Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Speaker, let me just say to my good friend from California, that in the Revolutionary War they fought for 7 years against the greatest army in the history of the world at that time, ragged, with no shoes, no ammunition, and they outworked them and outfought them because they were on their homeland. That is what I am saying the Iraqis should do. It is the Iraqis' country. The Americans should not be dying for Iraqis, caught in this civil war. We have appropriated $1.2 trillion. We have appropriated over $140 billion more than the White House asked for, $140 billion more for the troops, to support the troops. We have given everything they asked for. In this Iraq accountability bill, we give them $4 billion more than the President asked for. We put a strategic reserve in, and we also take care of the health care, the post-traumatic stress. We take care of brain damage. We take care of the troops. We want to make sure the troops have what they need. And to go back to the Revolutionary War, my great-grandfather's grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War on the right side and he prevailed. We don't have any letters from him, but we have letters from my great-grandfather who served in the Civil War on the right side, and he talks about how tough it was in the Civil War. But we fought our own Civil War, and my great-grandmother lived to be 96; I was 6 years old, and she said, you are put on this Earth to make a difference. We need to make a difference in this Congress, to change the direction of a mishandled war. We need to have oversight and accountability for the $1.2 trillion that we have spent on the Defense Department in 1 year.

Mr. MURTHA

Mr. MURTHA. Let me just say that the Revolutionary War, my great- great-grandfather fought in it. We fought our own war. In the Civil War, I have my great-grandfather's hat in my office. He fought against the South in the Civil War. We fought our own war. What we are trying to do in this legislation is force the Iraqis to fight their own war. That's what it's all about. Sixty-two Americans have died this month. We want to force the Iraqis to fight their own war. Parliamentary Inquiry