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(Washington D.C.)- Congresswoman Grace F. Napolitano (D-Norwalk) voted today to override the President’s veto of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Health and Iraq Accountability Act. The effort to override the veto received a majority of support in the House of Representatives, but less than the two-thirds required for passage.
“The President’s veto ignored the American people’s call for a new direction in Iraq and I was proud to join my colleagues in support of a responsible plan to get our troops home and require the Iraqi government to meet basic benchmarks for stability,” said Rep. Napolitano. “This measure would have required accountability from both the Bush Administration and the Iraqi government for the first time.”
The Iraq Accountability Act would have supported our troops with $4 billion more for our young men and women than the President requested. This includes additional funding for military health care, military housing, Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles for our troops, and a Strategic Reserve Readiness Fund. The measure also would have honored our veterans, providing $1.8 billion not requested by the President to begin meeting the unmet health care needs of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I remain firmly and totally supportive of our troops and am deeply disappointed that the President did not use this opportunity to get the much needed health care, housing and protection that our brave young men and women in Iraq and our veterans at home urgently need,” stated Napolitano.
The bipartisan Iraq Study Group has called for a goal of redeployment of American forces in Iraq being completed by March 2008. This measure reflected the expertise and research of the study group with the redeployment of U.S. combat troops from Iraq beginning in October 2007 at the latest, and meeting the Study Group’s goal of being completed by March 2008.
“The President should have signed this bill, in order to get urgently needed resources to our troops and our veterans, hold the Iraqi government accountable, transition the mission of our troops from combat to training, and begin to strengthen our military,” concluded Napolitano.
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