U.S. Senator Ken Salazar Member of the Agriculture, Energy and Veterans Affairs Committees 2300 15^th Street, Suite 450 Denver, CO 80202 | 702 Hart Senate Building, Washington, D.C. 20510
For Immediate Release December 7, 2005		CONTACT: Cody Wertz – Press Secretary 202-228-3630 Jen Clanahan – Deputy Press Secretary 303-455-7600
Sen. Salazar Statement on President’s Iraq Speech Today Washington, D.C. – “A successful reconstruction effort is essential for Iraq’s stability. But as America continues to spend some $6 billion a month in Iraq, I think most Americans would agree that we need additional international support in this reconstruction effort. We cannot continue to shoulder the lion’s share of this burden alone. ‘Quiet, steady progress’ sounds good, but I also remain concerned about the waste, fraud and abuse of American taxpayer dollars in the reconstruction of Iraq. That is not something that we should keep quiet. We must bolster our oversight of construction and service contracts. The American taxpayers deserve more accountability in the use of their tax dollars and they deserve to know what steps need to be achieved for success. The facts make it plain that reconstruction progress cannot succeed steadily without more secure overall conditions. We should continue to focus on providing effective training to Iraqi security forces so that they can establish and maintain security for their own country. I continue to look forward to hearing more from the President about specific training and reconstruction benchmarks we expect to achieve, and when we expect to achieve them in Iraq. # # #