NewsRoom

5/16/2008 12:00:00 AM	Sean Brosn
	202.225.2002
Playing Politics with our Troops in the Field


Thursday was a historic day in the U.S House of Representative, but for the wrong reasons. The Democrat majority played politics with funding for members of our military fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and the result was no funding for our troops, which could lead to furloughs. After a short debate and the protests of myself and my fellow Republicans, Congress passed a measure packed with billions in unrelated Washington spending and a massive $54 billion tax hike that will primarily affect small businesses, but it didn’t include one penny for our troops fighting overseas. The bill also micromanages our commanders in the field and sets an unattainable date for troop withdrawal. President Bush proposed to fund troops in Iraq and Afghanistan through the summer of 2009. His sole purpose is to make sure our fighting men and women have the resources they need to succeed. But Democratic leaders in the majority divided their proposal into three sections and each was voted on separately. 1) An amendment that gives the troops the money they need 2) An amendment that calls for military withdrawal from Iraq by December 2009 3) A $72 billon domestic spending package that will be funded by a massive tax increase that experts predict would hurt small businesses Democrats hoped all three would pass. Guessing that Republicans would vote for the first proposal, to fund our troops, and the final two would be approved along party lines by the Democrats. But instead of voting on the troop funding amendment, I joined 131 of my Republican colleagues and voted present, while 147 Democrats voted no. The result – the funding portion of the bill failed and the American people got to see that a majority of the Democrats in Congress don’t truly support our military men and women that are fighting overseas. I was also opposed to the way this bill came to a vote in the first place. This bill bypassed the normal committee process, which means it was written behind closed doors without any input from the minority or the American people. I want to point out that House Republicans are committed to providing our fighting men and women in harm’s way with the resources they need to succeed in their mission. We have proposed a clean troop funding bill that would provide our military the money it needs without extraneous spending. This bill would likely pass the House with bi-partisan support if the majority would just allow us to vote on it. The battle over troops funding has now moved over to the Senate, but when it makes its way back to the House I promise to fight for the money our troops need and deserve, while at the same time protecting your bottom line. ## END ##

Joe Barton Congressman - 6th District of Texas