To require payments to State and local governments for infrastructure and social services needs in the same amount as the amount of relief and reconstruction funds provided to Iraq.

Mr. Speaker, a study released by the House Committee on the Budget staff concludes that the cost of the Iraq war and the Iraq occupation could easily reach $417 billion over the next decade. That is $17 billion more than the President has proposed for a prescription drug benefit for our seniors. The report says the best- case scenario would cost taxpayers only $308 billion. Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz said recently, ``No one I know of would ever say that this war is cheap.''

That, Mr. Speaker, contradicts what everyone in the Bush administration was saying before the war. Budget Director Mitch Daniels said Iraq would be ``an affordable endeavor'' that ``will not require sustained aid.'' Top White House Economist Glen Hubbard said back then before the war, the ``costs of any such intervention would be very small.'' And another White House aid, Larry Lindsey, was fired after he said it would cost $100 billion to $200 billion.

The report details how the President's request allocates $157 per Iraqi for sewage improvements, while the President's budget has only $14 per American for sewer improvements. This is U.S. tax dollars. The administration is devoting $38 per Iraqi for hospitals, compared with $3.30 per American.

The President is seeking $5.7 billion to rebuild and expand Iraq's electricity generation, transmission and distribution systems, just as millions of Americans are regaining power lost due to Hurricane Isabel, and Congress continues to deal with the fallout from the August blackout in my part of the country and in the Northeast.

The President's request would send over 350 times more per person, $255 per Iraqi, compared to 71 cents per U.S. citizen on electric power rehabilitation.

The President wants $856 million to upgrade Iraqi airports, seaports, railways and communication systems. Another $470 million would go towards repairing roads, bridges and houses in Iraq and rehabilitating Iraqi government buildings.

The fine print of the President's request shows how far U.S. expenditures are going overseas and how the Bush administration, frankly, misled us before the war when he said this could be done on the cheap.

In Iraq, $875 million is earmarked to restore drained marshlands, while at home the administration wants to hold wetland conservation programs to last year's level at $100 million, one-eighth as much.

We have a duty, to be sure, to help the people of Iraq and Afghanistan as they rebuild their countries, but not at the expense of our own. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1738, the Iraqi Parity Act, a bill to require the U.S. Government to pay for infrastructure and social service needs for the 50 U.S. States in the same amount as the amount of relief and reconstruction funds provided to Iraq. State and local governments in the United States deserve, at a minimum, the same level of Federal involvement to address infrastructure and social service shortfalls as the amount of relief and reconstruction funds provided to Iraq.

What I am hearing from my constituents, and I have come to this floor day after day reading letters from constituents about their concern about our entry into the war and the aftermath of that war and how the administration may not have told us everything, it may not have told us the truth in how this Congress, this Republican leadership in this Congress, has failed and refused to investigate these expenditures and failed to and refused to investigate many of the other issues around the Iraq war.

But what I am hearing from my constituents in these letters is the U.S. cannot go it alone in Iraq. My constituents are uncomfortable with the huge price tag for reconstruction; my constituents do not feel their tax dollars should bear the entire burden of reconstruction in Iraq; my constituents do not feel our troops should bear the entire burden of protecting Iraq; and, most of all, my constituents are concerned that the administration is simply not doing enough to ensure the safety of our men and women in the Armed Forces.

Mr. Speaker, this is a serious issue that this Congress needs to debate. We need answers. We need the Bush administration to tell us what their plans are. How long we are going to be in Iraq? How we are going to rebuild that country? How much it is going to cost, and when we are going to withdraw from that country?

Mr. Speaker, we all know that it will take years, if not decades, for Iraq to be restored and rebuilt in the wake of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Our nation's desire to restore and rebuild Iraq--for the Iraqi people--is to be commended. It reflects the most dearly held values in American society.

As Americans, we want to make the world a better place. We want people to live full, healthy lives without fear of violence and hunger. We want children to have full stomachs, clear heads and the educational resources to realize their potential. We believe that healthcare should not be available to only the rich.

Certainly, as a nation, we want to elevate the quality of life for the Iraqi people, who bear the scars of years of hunger, violence and fear. At the same time, we must ask, what is being done to end the hunger, violence and fear that dominates the lives of far too many Americans?

As USAID makes the first down-payment of $1.7 billion that the United States has dedicated to the housing, education, health care, and the infrastructure of rebuilding Iraq, we must ask--what is the Administration's plan to ``Rebuild America ``?

Here at home, our schools are closing, summer school activities are being shut down, hospitals are not able to provide the health care, and state and local first responder budgets are being stretched thin.

Over the past two years, 3.1 million Americans have lost their jobs, nearly 5 million Americans have lost their health care coverage, and 2 million families that were living the American Dream have dropped out of the middle class into poverty.

This is not progress. We need a plan to ``Rebuild America.''

Enacting more tax cuts, as the Administration favors, is illogical. How can a $550 billion tax cut that primarily changes the tax treatment of corporate dividends stimulate the economy? How will this tax cut help state and local authorities address the shortfalls in our nation's critical infrastructure? Twenty billion dollars, as provided in the tax package, is wholly inadequate. Moreover, it is a drop in the bucket as compared to our $1.7 trillion commitment to Iraq.

Mr. Speaker, while I believe that rebuilding Iraq will be important to secure lasting peace in the region, it must not come at the expense of rebuilding America.

My colleague, Rahm Emanuel, has introduced legislation to require that for every dollar spent rebuilding Iraq, at least one dollar is spent addressing the health care crisis in America, urgent school construction, funding for first responders, and other domestic priorities.

In looking over USAID's plans for Iraq, I cannot understand how the Administration can justify building 12,500 new schools in Baghdad, without doing anything for children in America. Today, far too many America children are forced to study in trailers because their school districts simply do not have the funds to build a new school.

How can the Administration justify providing health care services to 13 million Iraqis while 42 million Americans struggle to live without health care? It's indefensible. Why, just today, Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil administrator of Iraq, announced plans to invest $100 million to create jobs in Iraq.

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Mr. Speaker, how can the Administration justify launching this ambitious initiative in Iraq when there are thousands of workers in Western New York that have been unemployed for over two years?

Mr. Speaker, the Administration must not sit idly by and let America fall apart, just as unprecedented resources are being dedicated to reconstructing Iraq. I strongly believe that enactment of H.R. 1738 will help us make significant strides in the effort to restore this nation.

We must rebuild America. We owe it to the men and women who fought in Iraq, risking their lives to protect our homeland. We owe it to our children. We owe it to our seniors. We owe it to all Americans.