Speeches
Pelosi Statement on Vote to Override Veto of Iraq Supplemental Bill
05/02/2007
Below are her remarks:“Thank you very much, Mr.
Speaker.
“I thank the gentleman for
yielding and I want to acknowledge the exceptional leadership of Chairman Obey,
of Chairman Murtha, and Chairman Skelton for putting together this important
piece of legislation.
“Yesterday, we sent it. Congress
passed this bill and yesterday we sent it to the President of the
“It is a bill that honors the
sacrifice of our men and women in uniform. Thank you, Chairmen Obey, Murtha,
and Skelton.
“The President had a historic
opportunity, an opportunity to take yes for an answer, because the bill
contained what the President had proposed. The President proposed benchmarks,
his very own benchmarks are contained in this bill.
“The Department of Defense has
guidelines for readiness for our troops, their training, their equipment, and
the time they can spend at home and overseas. They are in the bill, even with a
waiver for the President, giving the President more latitude. The President
said no.
“I had hoped that the President
would see the light instead of turning a tin ear to the wishes of the American
people and a blind eye to what is happening on the ground in
“The President says that progress
is being made in
“In his statement on vetoing the
bill, the President said that he has vetoed this bill because, in his words, ‘It
made no sense.’ I repeat, the President said, ‘it made no sense to tell the
enemy when to start to plan withdrawing.’ In criticizing these timelines, of
course, the President is wrong.
“But when he was a candidate for
President, it made sense to him to say to President Clinton: ‘I think it’s
important for the President to lay out a timetable as to how long our troops
will be involved and when they will be withdrawn.’ Candidate Bush. This is on the war in
Kosovo, where we did not lose one single American soldier. This from a
President whose initiative has lost more than 3,000 Americans and countless
Iraqis.
“Bipartisan Congressional
majorities approved of using timelines for redeployment to instill urgency into
benchmarks that have already again been endorsed by the President and the Iraqi
leaders. They’ve agreed to this, except they reject them in this bill. A wide
range of people have noted the value of timelines in persuading the Iraqis to
make the political compromises needed to end the violence, including Secretary
of Defense Gates, who said: ‘The strong feelings
expressed in the Congress about the timetable probably have had a positive
impact in terms of communicating to the Iraqis that this is not an open-ended
commitment.’
“The Congress will not support an
open-ended commitment to a war without end. The President says he wants a blank
check. The Congress will not give it to him.
“Next, the President said that
Congress is substituting, our judgment for the judgments of the commanders in
the field 6,000 miles away. Wrong again, Mr. President. We’re substituting our
judgment for your judgment 16 blocks down
“Next the President claimed, and
Mr. Obey again referenced it, that this bill is loaded with non-emergency
spending. Well, it may be a non-emergency to the President, but it certainly is
an emergency to the people affected. Once again, the President is wrong. The
needs of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina think it’s an emergency, and so does
any one person of conscience in our country who cares about the victims of
Katrina. That millions of children are about to lose their health insurance is
an emergency for them and for our country.
“Today, the President faces the
consequences of his own making. This is the seventh supplemental for the war in
“The President claims that this
legislation ‘infringes upon the powers vested in the Presidency by the
Constitution.’ The President is wrong. Congress is exercising its right as a
co-equal branch of government to work cooperatively with the President to end
this war.
“By voting yes to override,
Congress sends a strong message supporting our troops. They have done everything
that has been asked of them and excellently. They deserve better. To rebuild
our military, which has been seriously strained by this war in
“Passage of this bill then can
refocus our energy on efforts against terrorism by bringing the war in
“The war on terrorism was in
“Now, we are into the fifth year
of a failed policy. This Administration should get a clue. It’s not working.
This is the fourth surge they have proposed. When they proposed it in January,
they said, ‘In 60 to 90 days, we will know.’ It’s 120 days and now they’re
saying September. And then they say maybe by the end of the year. So what is
this? We will be into another whole year of this war, far longer than World War
II.
“Nobody who serves in this body,
who takes the oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution, needs
anybody to tell them, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, what our
responsibility is to protect the American people.
“Nobody needs a reminder of what
the threat of terrorism is to our country. But we do need to work together to
keep our focus on where the war on terror really is. If we clear up this
matter, bring this war to an end in
“Let us stop this war without end.
I urge a yes vote.
“Thank you, Mr.
Speaker.”