(Washington, DC) – Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who last week led a group of 89 House members in writing to the President to state their commitment to only providing funding for the redeployment of troops from Iraq, issued the following statement in response to the $196 billion supplemental spending request for Iraq that President Bush formally submitted today:

“The President is asking Congress to pay for an exit strategy for him at the expense of our troops. Well, people aren’t buying his scare tactics anymore. People are asking ‘How many of our troops should die so the President can save face?’

“Congress should not approve another dime for him to run out the clock on his failed policy. We have the power to end the occupation of Iraq by fully funding the safe, timely, responsible redeployment of our troops, and there are a growing number of members of Congress who are committed to doing just that.”

A recent national poll found strong opposition to Congress providing further unconditional funding for Iraq and broad support for Congress providing funds only to protect troops and bring them home. Asked what Congress should do with President Bush's pending Iraq supplemental request, 24 percent of respondents supported voting against the funding, 22 percent supported unconditional funding, 46 percent supported providing funding only for redeployment and eight percent responded "don't know". The poll, which reached 1,000 adults nationwide between September 20-23, was designed by Lake Research Partners and administered by Caravan as part of an omnibus telephone survey. The margin of error for the full sample of adults is +/- 3.1% and +/- 3.5% among registered voters.