Congressional Progressive Caucus

Floor Speech

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Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to represent the Congressional Progressive Caucus where we have close to 100 members all across the country that are pushing forward our progressive values that I think are extremely important, especially in a district like mine, frontline communities and many communities of color that are suffering from issues around poverty, jobs, environment, education, disinvestment, and so forth. So I am very honored to be representing our caucus today with the Special Order.

Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

I rise in support of the resolutions presented by my friends from California, Congresswoman Lee and Congressman Khanna. They are long overdue.

The actions of this President over the last few weeks are an escalation of the reckless, arrogant, and ignorant foreign policy of this White House, if you can even call these hasty decisions a policy. The President's actions lack a coherent strategy. He lacks an understanding of history, and he lacks the foresight to see the consequences of his actions.

Last week, the House and the Senate received briefings that failed to answer our questions about the basic facts behind the decision to kill Major General Qasem Soleimani. Republican Senators themselves said the briefing was so poorly presented that they left more opposed to the President's actions than before they were briefed.

In other words, the more we learn about this debacle, the less faith anyone has in the White House's ability to make these decisions.

Some of the questions asked by Members of Congress in that briefing went unanswered for so-called security reasons. Yet they were later addressed in interviews and press conferences by members of the administration as they tried to cover for the President's lies and obfuscations.

That is why I will join Democrats, and hopefully any Member of the House unwilling to watch us enter another endless war, in voting for these bills to limit the President's ability to engage in further aggression with Iran and keep American troops out of harm's way.

The President has spent the days since his ill-advised attack blustering to reporters and on twitter, including threatening to attack cultural sites, a war crime of which the only outcome would be maiming and killing civilians.

Just last week he ticked off a list of Iranian aggressions that he claimed were the result of the Iran deal. In fact, each event he cited occurred only after his foolish decision to pull out of the deal. These resolutions are critical to curtailing any further misguided action by President Trump.

The fact is, this action that he has taken makes Americans less safe. It threatens our diplomats abroad with retribution, it threatens our military personnel in the region, and it threatens Americans working in the region.

Many, many years ago, Senator George McGovern said: ``I am fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.'' Well, I am fed up too, and so are the American people.

Reports suggest the President thought this move would be celebrated by Americans. But I speak for myself and the hundreds of constituents who have messaged me when I say: No more, Mr. Trump. We don't want this war. We don't want war with Iran. No continuing escalation, no more killings, and no more sending our daughters and sons into harm's way to appease the fragile egos of the men in the White House.

I call on all my colleagues to support the resolutions of my colleagues, Ms. Lee and Mr. Khanna.

And I send a clear message to the White House: Your days of reckless misadventures with the lives of Americans are over.
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Ms. TLAIB. Schakowsky).

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Ms. TLAIB. Lee), my mentor. The original squad member is what I like to call her. I so appreciate the leadership role that she plays in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, especially in trying to suspend and stop all war efforts by our country.
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Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his incredible leadership. It is a blessing here.

This administration's rogue attempt to start a war with Iran has endangered countless lives around the world. We are farther away from global peace and bringing our troops home.

Just as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been disastrous, resulting in deaths of millions of people and costing trillions of dollars, a war with Iran and Iraqi Shia militias would destabilize the region and cause untold human suffering.

Congress must act swiftly to reclaim our authority over declarations of war and uphold the will of the American people who loudly say no to war with Iran.

Our residents want us focused on ensuring everyone in America has the opportunity to thrive. Trillions of dollars have been spent on death and destruction instead of on education and healthcare that communities like Michigan's 13th District Strong so desperately need. Instead we have wars now that have become political campaign moves.

I represent the third poorest congressional district in the country. My residents don't want more endless wars in the Middle East. They want good jobs, affordable healthcare, and good schools for their children.

We must reclaim our government from those who pushed the war, and we must dismantle the military industrial complex once and for all.

From day one this administration has antagonized Iran, tearing up the successful nuclear deal, imposing crippling unilateral sanctions that hurt everyday people a lot more than they hurt the Iran leadership.

Our foreign policy has been driven by warmongers obsessed with regime change, despite a long and bloody American track record of failed regime changes across the globe. Fueled by a military industrial complex that demands new targets for its weapons, we have roamed from continent to continent destabilizing governments and learning no lessons. We have made it actually so much worse.

The American people have seen what happens when we in Congress fail to live up to our duty as their representatives. When we don't ask the tough questions of those hungry for war, our soldiers, our men and women are sent to fight and die in Iraq for weapons of mass destruction that do not exist. Families from Vietnam to Libya are torn apart by bombs and bullets, and children across Southeast Asia are born without arms and legs because weapons like Agent Orange poison innocent civilians to this day.

Let us finally, mercifully learn our lesson now. We must solve our differences with diplomacy, not missiles. No war with Iran not now, not ever. We live in a country where endless wars have been normalized, but it is not normal. It shouldn't be normal.

When we demand a debt-free college education or healthcare for all, the establishment, folks in this Chamber ask how much will it cost and who will pay for it? However, we throw billions of dollars away on broken weapons systems. We spend trillions on sending our Armed Forces to die in rich people's wars.

When we demand basic dignity and opportunity to thrive, that is when the establishment starts pretending to care about deficits and debt.

We are awake to this game, and we are not playing it anymore. We must dismantle our war economy and reinvest in the people's economy.

Last week's vote on the War Powers Resolution is a great first step toward reigning in the war machine, but we must go further. We need to pass Representative Lee's bill to repeal the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force, which this administration is pretending authorizes their military maneuvers. And we need to pass Representative Khanna's bill to prohibit military spending on a war with Iran, right now, before another attack is ordered.

We must all keep up the pressure and ask those tough questions and keep up the fight for the American people who are still to this day saying: Stop lying to us before you go to war. Stop using our men and women as campaign moves, rather than trying to keep our Nation safe.

We can stop this march to war, but it is going to take all of us and take courage in this Chamber.

I thank my good colleagues from the Congressional Progressive Caucus for their amazing and incredible courage to stand up and tell the truth that is sometimes lacking in this Chamber. We must do that. And sometimes staying silent or not asking those tough questions is the same as lying.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the 13th District for their faith and support in the work that I am doing in this Chamber. I yield back the balance of my time.

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