Floor Speech
Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the leadership in both the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Armed Services Committee for their efforts to make Afghanistan a top priority and to focus on our challenges there. They've done a fabulous job.
Mr. Speaker, I'm proud to work with Representative Drake to mark the 20th anniversary of founding of the Special Operations Command.
U.S. Rep. Adam Smith (WA-09) voted today in favor of a House resolution opposing President Bush's plan to deploy more than 20,000 additional U.S. combat troops to Iraq. The resolution, which also pledged the House's continued support for the troops in Iraq, passed by a bipartisan vote of 246 to 182.
Smith spoke in favor of the resolution on the House floor yesterday. The following are his remarks as prepared for delivery:
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4954, the SAFE Port Act. I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this comprehensive, bipartisan legislation which will address one of the most significant challenges identified by the 9/11 Commission: an attack at our ports. I commend my colleagues for working together to bring forth this important piece of legislation that will enhance our security, improve the efficiency of trade and provide necessary funding for the critical missions of our Coast Guard, Customs and Border Agents, and others involved in the maritime industry.
This is a premeditated moral and economic crime. I am speaking against it. I am pleased that some of the Senators in the other Chamber have stood up on a vote of courage and have prevented some of these tax cuts going through.
Mr. Speaker, first I want to thank the gentlewoman from Oregon for organizing this hour to talk about a very important subject, the budget. Of the many things that are disturbing about the budget that the President has proposed and the Republicans have proposed here in the House of Representatives, I think perhaps the most disturbing, is the chatter that is coming out of the Republican side of the aisle that deficits do not matter.