News

U.S. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) released the following statement this evening after voting against the compromise version of the emergency war supplemental bill, which would fund the President's military policies in Iraq through September:

"This was an agonizingly difficult vote for me. I was forced to choose between two options when I supported neither.

U.S. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) today voted for H.R. 1585, the fiscal year 2008 National Defense Authorization Act. The bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 397 to 27. Smith chairs the Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee, which wrote the portion of the bill providing our special operations forces the tools and support they need to better fight al-Qaeda.

U.S. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) today voted in favor of the revised Iraq Accountability Act, which passed the House of Representatives tonight by a vote of 221 to 205.

"We need a new direction in Iraq. The President has placed roughly 160,000 of our troops in a highly vulnerable position - refereeing a civil war - while the various factions in Iraq have not made adequate progress toward reconciliation. The needed political reconciliation among these groups will not happen until we make it clear to the Iraqis that our occupation is coming to an end," Smith said.

U.S. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) today issued the following statement on the bipartisan trade policy agreement reached late yesterday between Congress and the Administration. The agreement paves the way forward for trade pacts including the Peru and Panama Free Trade Agreements.

Earlier this week, U.S. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) voted to support the House Armed Services Committee's markup of the fiscal year 2008 National Defense Authorization Act. Smith chairs the Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee, which wrote the portion of the bill providing our special operations forces the tools and support they need to better fight al-Qaeda.

U.S. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) today announced he will vote for the conference agreement on H.R. 1591, the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health and Iraq Accountability Act. The agreement includes language that would set a goal for the redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq by March 2008. Smith chairs the Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee.

U.S. Reps. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) today introduced the Medicaid Access Project through Information Technology (MAP IT) to lower health care costs. The bill promotes the modernization of health record systems to prevent medical errors and to increase instant access to medical information for patients and doctors.

Specifically, MAP IT will allow for the creation of a demonstration project to provide a more modern, technology-based system for managing chronic disease for Medicaid recipients.