Since July of this year, 92 members of Congress have written to the President to put him on notice that we will only authorize funding for Iraq that is used to fully fund the safe and orderly redeployment of our troops from Iraq.  And over the past week, members of the Progressive and Out of Iraq Caucuses have met with our party’s leadership, and we have insisted that any potential funding for Iraq must be incorporated in a redeployment bill, not one that continues to fund the President’s occupation.  Today, with this legislation, we are seeing the results of our efforts.

While this bill is not perfect, it is the strongest Iraq bill to date.  This is the first time that this Congress has put forth a bill that ties funding to the responsible redeployment of our troops, and it also includes language mandating a start date for the President to begin the redeployment of our brave men and women.

While we remain disappointed by the end date being a goal no later than December 2008, we see this as legislation that the Senate can and should pass.

This is a concrete step in the right direction, and an important marker for this Congress to lay down.