Madam Speaker, I rise to support the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Health and Iraq Accountability Act.

For four years, the Republican led Congress gave the President a blank check for his misguided and mismanaged war in Iraq. The war has taken the lives of more than 3000 of our brave troops, while tens of thousands more have been wounded, and countless Iraqis have died.  Congress refused to fulfill its constitutional obligation for oversight and its moral obligation to end the war.

Today, we take the first step to meeting those duties. This bill is a step toward providing our veterans with the health care and other services that they’ve earned.  It is a step toward changing a failed policy.  And it is the first step toward bringing our troops home and ending the war.

Madam Speaker, I’ve opposed the Iraq war from the beginning.  One of my proudest moments in Congress was voting against the war in October 2002.  And I have been working to end the war for the last four years.  As a member of the Out of Iraq Caucus, I want to bring our troops home sooner than the fall of 2008.

But today, with this bill, we all face a choice:

• to continue giving the President a blank check in Iraq on a never ending war
• or to establish a responsible timetable for withdrawing our troops and bringing the war to an end.

For me the choice is clear: I will vote to bring this war to an end.

It’s gone on far too long and cost us far too much.

Support the troops.  Bring them home.

I yield back.

Pictured above: (center) Congresswoman Capps meets with Central Coast firefighters to discuss emergency preparedness.