Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2009
Floor Speech
SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2009 -- (Senate - May 20, 2009)
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AMENDMENT NO. 1173
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Mr. CORKER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Senators LUGAR, ISAKSON, COLLINS, and BENNETT be added as cosponsors to this amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. CORKER. Madam President, I am pleased to offer this amendment with my colleagues, Senator Graham of South Carolina and Senator Lieberman. This amendment would basically do two things.
Today, we have before us a supplemental appropriations bill. A large amount of the money in this bill is for our military operations and other operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This amendment is being offered without criticism. But, in fact, what we have today is a major shift in our policies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I doubt that there is a person in this body who can clearly articulate what our mission is in these two countries, to the standpoint of actually laying out objectives.
I think many Senators were part of a luncheon we had 2 weeks ago where, when the President of Afghanistan was asked what our mission was in Afghanistan, he could not articulate in any way that was comprehendible what our mission was in that country.
I do not offer those comments again in criticism. I realize there are a lot of changes underway. I realize there is going to be a new general on the ground; possibly it will take until August for that confirmation to take place.
I realize this administration is working with many agencies in trying to develop a plan that will be effective in this country. If one were to listen to the state of the mission, one would think our mission is very similar in Afghanistan to that of Iraq, minus actually having a democratically functioning government.
I know all of us have had some concerns about some of the issues within Government in both countries and where Government funding actually ends up. So this is an amendment, a bipartisan amendment, that is being put forth asking the administration to do two things: Asking that we, in essence, all understand this policy so that, in fact, we have a policy that is equal to the tremendous sacrifice our men and women in uniform are putting forth on our behalf and do so daily.
First of all, the amendment would require the President to submit to Congress a clear statement of objectives for Afghanistan and Pakistan and the benchmarks that will be used to quantify progress toward achieving those objectives.
Again, this is not tying their hands. There are no timetables that say certain things have to happen by a certain time. This is, in essence, asking the administration to lay out to us so we all know and can articulate those and, hopefully, even our men and women in the field can articulate these, to lay those out in a way by which we can understand the benchmarks.
Then, secondly, it asks that they come before us and actually give us quarterly updates, after a period of time, toward those objectives and how they are actually progressing. I would hope that actually, at some point, the managers of the bill might be able to even accept this by unanimous consent because I cannot imagine why anybody in this body would want to vote the billions and billions of dollars toward these efforts that we rightfully are supporting today--do not get me wrong, but I cannot imagine not wanting the administration to come back to us with these benchmarks and these objectives so we all can measure our progress there.
We have been there 8 years. Our men and women in uniform have given and given and given; many have lost their lives, many have lost limbs. It would seem to me that everyone in this body, regardless of which side of the aisle they are on, would want to clearly understand what our mission is there and our way of evaluating that.
I yield the floor.
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