Cornyn Calls On Democrat Leaders To Pass Troop Funds

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Cornyn Calls On Democrat Leaders To Pass Troop Funds

In advance of tomorrow's meeting at the White House between President Bush and Democrat congressional leaders regarding the emergency supplemental bill, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today renewed his call for the Democrat leadership to remove the artificial "surrender date" and the billions in unrelated pork projects that they included in the initial legislation.

"It is my hope that at tomorrow's meeting, cooler and more responsible heads will prevail and a bipartisan agreement can be reached. With leadership comes responsibility, and the new Democrat leaders in Congress have a responsibility to stop these political games and pass a clean bill for our troops. There is no place in this legislation for billions of dollars in unrelated pork projects or for artificial timelines that will harm the ability of our commanders on the ground to complete their mission. It is time to do the right thing - the responsible thing - and pass this critical funding for our troops."

Senator Cornyn also raised this issue at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning in which he questioned retired United States Army General Barry McCaffrey about what further delay in approving this funding might mean. Excerpts of their remarks are below:

Sen. Cornyn:

"What is Congress's responsibility in terms of providing a reliable, steady and predictable stream of funding so that the kind of planning and preparation you talked about can actually occur? … It's the delay in funding I'm worried about."

Gen. McCaffrey:

"I think the delay of the supplemental would be monumental bad judgment… It's sort of like watching a person freezing to death - the last thing that shuts down is blood flow to the brain…. We're going to fund that war and it, Congress, unless they actually pull the plug on the war, will have no impact on whether we buy ammunition or care for our wounded - that will happen. What will happen is we turn off every other program… [they] will start to atrophy and suffocate. Once we start that process, backing out of it will screw us up for two years. Political argument, I cannot imagine why the ‘loyal opposition' to the government would want to buy responsibility for the war in Iraq. I do personally think you got to make a political statement of opposition to the war in Iraq then give the Commander-in-Chief the tools he needs to fight in the short run. The supplemental -- I sure hope we pass that or there are going to be real consequences over at the Defense Department."

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