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Mr. Blumenauer: Mr. Speaker, this last week I had the opportunity to meet a true American hero in Iraq, Kirk W. Johnson. No matter what your position on the war in Iraq, how it started, where it's going, how it will end up, you should be deeply concerned by the 4 million Iraqis who have been forced to flee their homes. And you cannot help but be impressed by Mr. Johnson and his deep concern for their plight.

This young Arabist, who worked for the USAID as regional coordinator on reconstruction in Fallujah--from, I might add, impeccable Republican lineage--figured prominently in George Packer's haunting essay in The New Yorker on March 26 of this year. That essay, entitled "Betrayed: The Iraqis Who Trusted America the Most," had a profound impact on me. It is a harsh title, but the facts are harsh. In a country with a population about the size of Texas, 4 million Iraqis have been forced to flee their homes. Two million are currently outside the country, primarily in Jordan and Syria where there are jarring press accounts, for instance, of women forced into prostitution to feed their families in Syria. Mr. Johnson has been focusing on a special subset of these unfortunate people, people whose lives are at risk because they helped the United States, translators, guides, people who worked on the reconstruction effort. He has compiled a list of over 500 Iraqis that he knows personally are in that category. Five hundred, not one of whom has been able to yet make it to the United States for asylum. They are part of the tip of the refugee iceberg. Two million, as I say, in Jordan and Syria.

Mr. Johnson asks the question that each Member of Congress must confront: What kind of superpower can't convert its "very top priority"--the words, by the way, of Ellen Sauerbrey, the Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration in her testimony before the United States Senate--can't convert its very top priority into a program that starts saving the lives of people who helped us before their visas expire?

The stark reality is that only 70 Iraqis since October of last year have been admitted to the United States. Only eight in March, one in April and another in May.

I strongly urge that my colleagues join me in supporting H.R. 2265. This comprehensive refugee legislation will allow for more Iraqis to be granted refugee status in the United States. Why should the United States accept fewer refugees than Sweden? It would allow them to apply for refugee status in Iraq. Why should they be forced to flee the country, to Jordan, for instance, when we have the largest embassy in the world in Baghdad? This legislation would put somebody in charge, having a special coordinator to help us make sure that this problem is solved. I strongly urge my colleagues to make sure that Congress does its part to deal with the greatest continuing refugee crisis in the world with the possible exception of the Darfur. This is a crisis for which the United States has a unique responsibility and a unique role in its solution.

Please examine H.R. 2265, add your name as cosponsor, but, more important, join Mr. Kirk Johnson in making the plight of these millions of unfortunate people, especially those who helped us, part of your mission in Congress.

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(Mr. YARMUTH asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. Yarmuth: Mr. Speaker, over the last 7 years, Dick Cheney has convinced himself that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11, that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that the insurgency was in its last throes. Now it seems he's convinced himself that he is not actually Vice President, insisting that he, unlike the previous 44, is not a member of the executive branch.

It's difficult for any American who's taken seventh grade civics to miss the hypocrisy of this claim, especially when it comes from a man who so frequently has withheld information from Congress based on the assertion of executive privilege.

It's time for the Vice President to remove the secrecy, reject hypocrisy, and honor his pledge to support the Constitution. It's time for Dick Cheney to start respecting the citizens who pay his salary and start leveling with us. Even a child can tell you, you can have special privileges if you obey the rules, and even the Vice President can't have it both ways.

Many of us wish you weren't part of the executive branch, Mr. Vice President, but so long as you accept the executive perks, we will demand executive responsibility and accountability.

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(Mr. Emanual asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. Emanual: Mr. Speaker, 5 years ago, when the Vice President met with the senior executives of big oil companies, and we wanted to know what they discussed when it came to energy policy for the country, the Vice President exerted executive privilege and said those meetings were private.

Now when we want to know what he is doing as it relates to America's national security in the lead-up to the war in Iraq and after the fact, the Vice President has declared he is a member of the legislative branch, the legislative branch.

Every 10-year-old who is studying social studies in the United States knows that the Vice President is in the executive branch. So we have decided that if the Vice President is no longer a member of the executive branch, therefore, we will no longer fund the executive branch of his office, and he can live off the funding for the Senate presidency.

We will follow the logic of this ludicrous argument that the Vice President of the United States is in the legislative branch, no longer in the executive branch. The Vice President is acting like he is unaccountable and above the law.

In fact, there is a real consequence to his decisions. His decision to avoid the historical record as it relates to America's national security has consequences. For too long he has accounted like he is above the law and not accountable, and it's time we bring him back to earth.

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(Mr. Lewis of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Lewis of Georgia: Mr. Speaker, I rise today to add my voice to others who are calling for an end to the war in Iraq. We must end this war, and we must end it now. We cannot wait, and we must not wait.

Every month, every week, every hour, every minute, every second, every moment that another young American is killed, their innocent blood is on all of our hands. We have a moral obligation to bring this madness to an end. Nothing but nothing good can come out of this war. It is destroying Iraq and destroying the very soul of our Nation.

As Members of Congress, we must find a way to stop it and stop it now.

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(Mr. Pallone asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. Pallone: Mr. Speaker, yesterday, an influential Republican voice on foreign affairs admitted that the war in Iraq is doing more harm than good and that, I quote, "Our course in Iraq has lost contact with our vital national security interests in the Middle East and beyond."

Those are the words of Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, who went to the Senate floor last night to say that changes in strategy need to be made before September. Lugar's comments should be listened to very carefully by my Republican colleagues who continue to hold out hope that the President's troop escalation strategy can work.

Senator Lugar is just the latest to admit that the President's plan is not working and that a new strategy is needed in Iraq. Last week, General Petraeus himself said that we will not meet the target of seeing any positive results from the troop escalation plan by September.

Now, Senator Lugar's realistic assessment of the war in Iraq is commendable, but words are simply not enough. If Lugar is convinced that the war in Iraq is no longer in our Nation's best interest, he must join us in finding an alternative that begins to bring our troops home.

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