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(Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)

Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas: Mr. Speaker, sadly, we are moving toward almost 4,000 dead in Iraq. I don't believe there are enough times that we can recount for the American people how many have already died; 25,000 are injured.

I am grateful to the Democratic leadership for providing enhanced funding for the veterans hospitals and the Veterans Affairs Department to break the backlog of those veterans' wait for services and to help those in outpatient centers who need care.

But the real issue is when is the Iraqi Government going to stand up?

Just this past weekend, bombing occurred in Afghanistan where we need to turn our attention, but we understand that there is a possibility that the Iraqi Parliament will end its work and go off on a vacation for July and August while our soldiers are dying.

It is time now for this administration to understand the misdirection of this mission, to cause the Iraqi Government to stand up so that we can stand down. How many more lives, how many more families for these brave and wonderful men and women on the front lines of Iraq? They are our heroes, they are the patriots. We salute them.

It is time now for the administration to stand up for them and make the Iraqi Government stand up and take care of the Iraqi people.

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The Speaker pro tempore: Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Ms. Woolsey: Mr. Speaker, last month, despite my objections and many of my colleagues, Congress passed a bill to continue funding the occupation of Iraq. Now everyone is waiting for the next big event in the war, General Petraeus's report on whether the escalation, the surge, is succeeding. This report is due in September.

But with our brave American troops and innocent Iraqis continuing to die, we are remiss if we twiddle our thumbs and wait for September. We need to hold this administration accountable for its actions in Iraq, and we need to do it today, not 3 months from now.

So I want to go back to January 10 of this year, the night that the President announced his new surge policy in a speech to the Nation, to see if he is delivering on what he promised. On that night, he said, "America will hold the Iraqi government to the benchmarks it has announced."

But here we are, Mr. Speaker, 6 months later, and the Iraqi government has made virtually no progress on any of it's benchmarks. Even Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, our new war czar, expressed frustration about this in his Senate confirmation hearing. General Lute said, "My assessment would be that the Iraqis have shown very little progress."

Mr. Speaker, back on January 10, we were told that the surge would help the Iraqis carry out their campaign to put down sectarian violence. But the Pentagon's own report on the current situation, which was released last Wednesday, said that the violence continues to be driven by sectarianism. In other words, we've sent our troops to fight a civil war that has nothing to do with protecting America from terrorism.

Also, back on January 10, the escalation speech included these words: "Our military forces in Anbar are killing and capturing al Qaeda leaders."

Yet, Mr. Speaker, in the Senate hearing I mentioned a moment ago, Senator Evan Bayh quoted a top CIA expert in saying that the American presence in Iraq is creating more members of al Qaeda than we are killing.

The President claims that he has the power to grab people off the streets of America, declare them enemy combatants and order the military to hold them indefinitely. But last week, a Federal Appeals Court ruled that, "to sanction such authority would have disastrous consequences for the Constitution and for the country."

The President says that he is a strict constructionist when it comes to the Constitution. But he has shown that he is not a strict constructionist, not a loose constructionist, but a non constructionist who simply ignores the Constitution.

It is time, Mr. Speaker, for a new policy in Iraq. We must fully fund the safe redeployment of our troops. We must guarantee the very best health care for our veterans. We must work with the Iraqi people and the international community to provide for the reconstruction of Iraq. We must look to diplomacy, not preemptive war, to help Iraq and its neighbors to achieve political solutions to the region's problems, and there must be no permanent American military bases in Iraq.

And America must rely, once again, on our most powerful weapons in the fight against terrorism, our Constitution and our democratic values.

And, Mr. Speaker, we must bring our troops home.

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The Speaker pro tempore (Mr. Klein of Florida) Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Ms. Waters: Mr. Speaker, last week President Bush defended his war in Iraq saying it would be a disaster if we left. Well, if the President doesn't know it by now, we already have a disaster on our hands.

Allow me to read a few headlines from the past week to give everyone a sense of how well the war is progressing:

The Washington Post, June 18, 2007, General Petraeus: "Iraq 'Challenges' to Last for Years."

New York Times, June 16, 2007, "In Iraq Secretary Gates Says Progress Toward Peace is Lagging."

New York Times, June 13, 2007, "Violence Rising in Much of Iraq, Pentagon Says."

MSNBC.com, March 17, 2006, "Cost of Iraq War could surpass $1 trillion. Of course, the estimates vary but all agree price is far higher than initially expected."

A Pentagon report released last week gave a grim outlook of the situation in Iraq. While the number of U.S. troops on the ground reached a record high as a result of the President's so-called troop surge, violence in Iraq has continued to increase. In fact, since the surge was announced, 500 American troops have been killed. According to the report, much of the violence that plagues Iraq is attributable to "sectarian friction and each faction is driven by its own political and economic power relationships."

Further, "Illegally armed groups are engaged in a cycle of sectarian and politically motivated violence, using tactics that include indiscriminate bombing, murder, executions and indirect fire to intimidate and provoke sectarian conflict."

Simply put, Iraq is a full-fledged civil war.

The number of suicide attacks in Iraq has increased from 26 in January to 58 in March and April. Remember IEDs, that is, improvised explosive devices? Now insurgents are increasingly using a more advanced type of IED called EFPs, or explosively formed projectiles, to kill our soldiers. These new bombs are being used in rapidly increasing numbers and are extremely effective at piercing the armor of our Humvees, tanks, and troop transports, causing mass casualties. As of today, there have been 3,526 U.S. deaths; there have been 26,000 Americans wounded, some very serious; 60,000 to 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died; and there are over 1,000 attacks per week, on average, and steadily growing.

We have spent over $435 billion of taxpayer money. The total cost to our economy could be upwards of $1 trillion to $2 trillion.

It is time to face the facts. Bombs and bullets have not and will not bring us peace in Iraq.

In January, I, along with my colleagues Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey, introduced H.R. 508, the "Bring the Troops Home and Iraq Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2007." This bill repeals the authorization of force in Iraq, requires a complete withdrawal of troops within 6 months, and puts Iraq on a path to sovereignty and peace. This bill seeks to end the cycle of violence that has plagued Iraq since we began this occupation.

There is bipartisan opposition to the war in Iraq, and a majority of Americans not only think President Bush is doing a poor job handling the situation in Iraq, but a majority also support setting a timetable for withdrawal. Our constituents sent us a strong message in November and continue to demand an end to this war.

Mr. Speaker, I hope that we in Congress have the courage to bring this war in Iraq to an end.

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