I thank the gentleman for yielding.

This is almost the 250th time I have been down on this House floor to talk about Iraq in the last 2 years. I can't remember, so I say almost how many times it's been.

During that time, the American people have been demanding two things, that the Congress step up to our responsibility and bring our troops home, and that we take bold steps to face up to the President by using our power, the power of the purse, to hold him accountable for what is going on in Iraq.

Today, Speaker Pelosi is leading the House of Representatives in a bold direction. It is the first time so far that we have tied funding to redeployment. Ninety-two Members of the House have written a letter to the President demanding that no more funding for Iraq go forward without it, meaning bringing our troops home and redeployment.

This vote also leads to next year's appropriations where we can use the power of the purse and fully fund bringing our troops home in a very responsible and very timely and actually safe way.

This bill is not perfect. It is the boldest step yet, however, and we must support it. I would not support it if we were not tying the funding to responsible redeployment. I would not support it unless there was a start date for the President to begin the redeployment of our brave men and women in uniform. This bill is the beginning, but it is a bold beginning. I think we should consider everything that is in it, and then build on that for the future and get our troops home as soon as possible.