Providing for Consideration of H.R. 3326, Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 3326, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2010 -- (House of Representatives - July 29, 2009)

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Mr. McGOVERN. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the rule and in support of the fiscal year 2010 Defense appropriations bill, which the House will take up shortly. With the passage of this bill, we will have completed all of our appropriations bills, and we will have successfully overcome Republican obstructionism and attempts to undermine the legislative process. So I think this is good news for the people of the country that we are actually getting our work done, which is something that they were not able to do very successfully.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3326, by and large, is a good bill. It provides support for our military families, and it provides our troops with the funding and the equipment they need to successfully perform their duties and to carry out their assigned missions.

I want to congratulate Chairman Murtha and Ranking Member Young for their bipartisan work on this bill, but, Mr. Speaker, I do not support this bill without significant reservations.

I believe that this Congress has not yet come to grips with what our policy is in Afghanistan. This House recently passed an emergency supplemental appropriations bill that provides billions and billions of dollars for the war in Afghanistan, a measure that I opposed, but I believed then, as I do now, that it is a mistake to spend billions and billions of dollars more for a war that has no clearly defined mission.

My concern deepened when I recently read reports that indicated that General McChrystal believes we will have to expand our forces and, thereby, expand our mission in Afghanistan, meaning more money and more troops right now just to get the job started. I still have this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that we're getting sucked into something where the mission and goals are vague and where it is unclear how it will end.

Mr. Speaker, that's why we need an exit strategy. We need a clear definition of when this policy comes to an end and when our troops can come home, not a date certain but an explanation as to when the military part of this operation comes to a close. I remain skeptical about our policy in Afghanistan. I think this administration needs to provide Congress, this Nation and our military families with more clarity on this issue. If they don't, I believe Congress needs to demand it.

Like all of my colleagues, I have had many conversations with the men and women who serve in Iraq and Afghanistan--sometimes when they are about to deploy, sometimes when they have just come home, sometimes when they come to my district office, and often because we just run into one another at a coffee shop, at a diner, at a community center or on the street. I believe that we owe them a great deal for their service. We owe them the respect of looking them in the eye and of telling them that we know exactly what we are doing when we vote for money and missions that will send them directly into harm's way--someplace from where they may not return safe and sound to their families and to their loved ones.

I'm not asking for a protest vote on this bill. On this day, I intend to support the bill.

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