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

Mr. Emanual: Mr. Speaker, for years the Republican Congress sat idly by while we spent billions of dollars in Iraq and lost thousands of lives, no questions asked.

Now Republicans are starting to get nervous with the lack of results. On Monday, Senator Lugar said President Bush's plan to escalate the war in Iraq has very limited prospects for success and called on President Bush to begin to reduce U.S. forces. It's exactly what Democrats have been saying all along.

From day one, the new Democratic Congress said that once we have accountability, benchmarks and reporting requirements, we begin to see the beginning of the end. I can now say that the end is in sight. Instead of rubber stamping a failed Iraq policy, Democrats demanded that Republicans and the country measure the progress or the lack thereof of the President's plan for more troops, more money, more time and more of the same.

Starting in July, we will put the administration of the Republicans to the test, a new direction in Iraq, or more of the same of the present course, vote after vote.

We said last May that we would begin to see the beginning of the end. Just this week, we begin to see that light at the end of the tunnel on this failed policy.

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

Mr. Blumenauer: Mr. Speaker, the largest refugee crisis in the world, other than the Darfur, is unfolding in Iraq. Four million Iraqis have fled their homes. Two million have fled the country, and an estimated 20- to 50,000 a month or more are added to that toll.

Yet the United States has been able, with all our resources, to only allow 70 Iraqis refugee status in the United States since October, only one in April, only one in May.

It's time for us to accept responsibility to aid the people in this desperate plight. If there are any, any of my colleagues who have any doubt that we need to change the policy and reach out to them, I would urge that they seek out the soldiers who have returned home, who are fighting to try to save their interpreters and their guides.

The heart-wrenching stories of people via cell phone trying to guide them to safety will, I hope, inspire you to action and encourage you to support bipartisan legislation, H.R. 2265, for Congress to do its job for these refugees.

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

Mr. Langevin: Mr. Speaker, every day now, it's becoming more and more apparent that the President's troop escalation plan is not stemming the civil war in Iraq.

In fact, since the plan took effect earlier this year, violence in Iraq is up, and our soldiers are paying a heavy price on the battlefield. For months now, Democrats have stood united in our commitment to forge a new direction in Iraq, but our efforts have received very little support from congressional Republicans.

It appears that is beginning to change. Earlier this week, one of the most respected Members of the Republican party on international affairs, Senator Richard Lugar, said that we must recalibrate our strategy in Iraq to fit our domestic political conditions and broader needs of national security. Then yesterday, Senator Voinovich said that he doesn't believe the Iraqis are going to get it until they know we are leaving.

Both Senator Lugar and Senator Voinovich's comments are a blow to the White House and serve as yet another example of long-time supporters of the President's Iraq policy believing we are long overdue for a new direction. It's time for the congressional Republicans to face the reality and join us in dramatically changing course in Iraq.

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

Mr. Hare: Mr. Speaker, I rise to bring attention to recent reports that the United States commanders in Iraq are rejecting the recommendations from Army mental health experts.

To address the rising number of returning war heroes with mental health problems, Army psychologists have said that troops need a 1- month reprieve for every 3 months in combat, a suggestion that's been brushed aside by these commanders.

Denying troops the rest they need is another irresponsible move in a long line of policies that show a complete disregard for the well-being of our troops, such as being sent to war without adequate armor, being forced to complete multiple deployments, and when wounded, being subjected to a bureaucratic mess such as Walter Reed.

Mr. Speaker, I've only been in Congress since January, yet, this week, I made my sixth call to the spouse of a wounded or killed soldier in this war.

I'm tired of this war. My constituents are tired of this war. The American people are tired of this war. It's time to put the health and well-being of our troops first. It's time to bring them home.

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

Mr. Johnson of Georgia: Mr. Speaker, over a 2-day period this week, two influential Republican Senators came forward urging that we begin to pull our troops out of Iraq.

Rather than seriously listening to these opinions, however, the White House, through its spokesman, Tony Snow, said yesterday that he hoped Members of Congress would give their Baghdad security plan "a chance to unfold."

Is Tony Snow serious? How long does he expect congressional Republicans to continue to blindly support the administration's failed policy? After all, it was the President who said earlier this year that we should see significant improvements by September. But now, General Petraeus says that simply is not going to be possible, ladies and gentlemen.

Mr. Speaker, Democrats and the American people knew that this latest administration plan would not bring stability to Iraq. We also concluded long ago that we needed to start bringing our troops home. But with an administration that still refuses to face reality, we need help from our congressional Republicans.

Let us hope that the statements made by Senators Lugar and Voinovich will serve as a wake-up call to House Republicans to finally join us in changing course in Iraq.

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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 another young man is killed, another young woman is killed, 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 it is 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. Perlmutter asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. Perlmutter: Mr. Speaker, on Monday, Senator Lugar, the former chairman and current ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, went to the Senate floor and said that the President's troop escalation is not working. Then yesterday Republican Senator Voinovich said the U.S. should begin pulling troops out of Iraq so that people know we are indeed disengaging. But the President and his spokesman said, no, we need more troops and more time.

It has been clear for at least a year that a serious course correction is needed in Iraq. But, unfortunately, Republicans in this House of Representatives continue to rubber stamp the Bush administration's war policies. Democrats are changing the course of this misguided war, but with a stubborn President unwilling to face reality, congressional Republicans must break ranks with the President to do what is best for our Nation and for Iraq.

It is my hope that the congressional Republicans will seriously listen to their colleagues' comments and conclude, as Democrats already have, that we need to dramatically change our policy in Iraq.

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

Mr. McDermott: Mr. Speaker, my colleagues are saying we must have an end to the war, as have two Republican Senators. It is time for us to look at the actions of the Vice President of the United States.

You remember when George Bush sent Dick Cheney out to find a Vice President and he found himself? Well, if you read the last 4 days of The Washington Post, you read a chilling picture of the actions of the Vice President as he manipulated the intelligence leading us into the war. He has been the driving force to keep us in that war and still is today.

Then when questioned about what he does over there, he says, I am not a member of the executive. I don't know exactly. I have an office here, but I am not covered by the things the President says.

This man has been evading an Executive Order from 2003 by the President of the United States that everyone tell how they are covering classified material. But the Vice President is above that.

The Vice President is not above investigation by the House of Representatives for his actions in taking us into war and keeping us there.

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