Russ Feingold: Feingold To Push For Vote Next Week On Bringing The Open-Ended Military Mission In Iraq To An End

Feingold and Colleagues Will Offer Amendment Using Congress's “Power of the Purse”

September 14, 2007 -- Washington DC – U.S. Senator Russ Feingold announced today that he plans to continue his push in Congress for an end to the open-ended military mission in Iraq. Feingold intends to offer binding legislation that forces the President to redeploy U.S. troops from Iraq by using Congress's "power of the purse” when the Senate takes up the Defense authorization bill next week. Feingold is working with the Democratic leadership and his Senate colleagues to draft the legislation, which is expected to be similar to legislation he introduced earlier this year with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to redeploy U.S. troops from Iraq, after which funding for the ongoing military mission would end. This past May, a majority of Democratic senators voted in favor of the Feingold-Reid proposal.

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“Last night, we heard the President tell the nation that he intends to keep a large number of U.S. troops bogged down in Iraq indefinitely, while Al Qaeda continues to strengthen and regenerate in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Feingold said. “While many Democrats and Republicans have acknowledged the President’s strategy is the wrong approach, Congress has so far failed to take strong action to end it. Congress must use its power to end this misguided policy – a policy which has stretched our military to the breaking point, hobbled our ability to go after those who attacked us on 9/11, and endangered our national security.”

As Senator Feingold noted recently in a hearing, every single month of 2007 saw a significantly greater number of troop deaths than occurred during the same month in 2006. The summer of 2007 was also the deadliest summer for U.S. troops since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Source: Senator Russ Feingold