Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell released a statement on Monday after signing a letter with members of the House and Senate Republican Leadership to Speaker Pelosi urging her to call the House back into session to finish work on an emergency bill to fund the War on Terror:



“Congress has an obligation to our troops in the field to move this emergency security funding measure to the President as quickly as possible. Senate Republicans are prepared to send a clean bill to the President for his signature, yet inaction by the House is preventing Congress from moving forward to fund our men and women on the ground. I join with my colleagues in urging Speaker Pelosi to call the House back into session so that we may finish our work and ensure our troops receive the funding they need to win in Iraq.”



The full text of the letter follows



Dear Speaker Pelosi:



We are writing to urge you to call the House back into session immediately so that Congress can finish its work on the emergency legislation to fund the Global War on Terrorism. This funding request has been pending since February 5, but your leadership team chose to leave town for more than two weeks rather than completing this bill. As a result, our troops have been put at risk.



We are especially troubled by the House’s failure to appoint conferees. The Senate appointed conferees on March 29, moments after passing its bill, but the House never did so despite passing the bill a week earlier. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told the Senate that he hoped the House-Senate conference would begin on March 30. That hoped-for progress has been thwarted by your failure to act.



It should go without saying that our military leaders are in the best position to know the needs of our troops, and they have left no doubt that this funding is needed urgently. General Peter Schoomaker, United States Army Chief of Staff, has written that, “without approval of the supplemental funds in April, we will be forced to take increasingly draconian measures which will impact Army readiness and impose hardships on our Soldiers and their families.” Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has also emphasized the dangers of delay: “This kind of disruption to key programs will have a genuinely adverse effect on the readiness of the Army and the quality of life for soldiers and their families.”



Our troops need this funding, and they need it soon. The Senate is in session and ready to work. We respectfully request that you cancel the remainder of your break, call the House back into session, appoint conferees promptly, and work in good faith to pass a clean supplemental funding bill that the President can sign as soon as possible. Every day we don’t fund our troops is a day their ability to fight this war is weakened.



Senator Mitch McConnell

Senate Republican Leader



Senator Trent Lott

Senate Republican Whip



Senator Jon Kyl

Chairman, Senate Republican Conference



Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison

Chairman, Senate Republican Policy Committee



Senator John Cornyn

Vice-Chairman, Senate Republican Conference



Representative John Boehner

House Republican Leader



Representative Roy Blunt

House Republican Whip



Representative Adam Putnam

Chairman, House Republican Conference



Representative Eric Cantor

Chief Deputy Republican Whip





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