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ask.heather@mail.house.gov
In Washington DC 442 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 202-225-6316 Phone 202-225-4975 Fax |
In Albuquerque 20 First Plaza NW Suite 603 Albuquerque, NM 87102 505-346-6781 Phone 505-346-6723 Fax | ![](/congress110th/20081217050513im_/http://wilson.house.gov/Media/Photos/best.jpg) |
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Congresswoman Heather Wilson, First Congressional District of New Mexico
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Wilson Statement on Iraq Supplemental |
March 23, 2007 |
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Washington, DC – Congresswoman Heather Wilson, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, today issued the following statement concerning the Iraq Supplemental Spending Bill:
“This bill spends money to fight a war while attaching strings to virtually ensure we lose it.
“Under our Constitution, we divide power when it comes to national security. The Congress has considerable power to raise and support Armies and Navies, to authorize the use of force, to regulate and oversee the services. But there are limits to our power. Our tools are blunt and decisive, and they were designed to be so. As well informed national leaders we never hesitate to contribute to the debate and make our thoughts known about what we should do and how we should do it. But as an institution, we do not manage the military, command the troops, conduct diplomacy or decide the strategies. A bicameral body of 535 individuals could not possibly do this well. It is unwise to try to use our blunt legislative tools as a substitute for executive decisions with which we may not always agree.
“The Congress should not micromanage dwell times and deployment dates to prevent our military from being able to carry out the orders they have been given. We should not slowly bleed our forces in the field or put out more hoops for our soldiers to jump through. Their task is tough enough without the Congress making it harder.
“If a majority of this body wants to stop funding for our men and women in Iraq or wants to rescind the authorization to use force, those are the real tools we have at our disposal. And the Congress would then have to accept the consequences of that choice. But I don’t believe a majority of this body would vote to cut off funds. So, instead, we have this odd piece of legislation that funds a war while tying strings to the money that make it hard to win it.
“Getting the votes they needed to pass this unwise bill was pretty expensive. The sponsors added over $20 billion – that’s $20,000,000,000 -- in little extras. There’s $25 million for spinach farmers in California, $75 million for peanut storage in Georgia and even $120 million for shrimp and menhaden fishermen. I didn’t even know what a menhaden was. Apparently it is a fish used to make Omega-3 nutritional supplements and a single Houston company harvests two-thirds of the entire East Coast catch of this oily little fish. Nice haul.”
“It’s time for the House to exercise the kind of statesmanship that transcends party lines. Putting national security first would bring great credit to this institution. This bill falls well short of that mark.”
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