Ensuring accountability for key officials in the Biden-Harris administration responsible for decisionmaking and execution failures throughout the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this resolution, which is clearly just another attempt by Republicans to politicize their investigation. It was not a bipartisan investigation. It was their investigation into the United States' withdrawal from Afghanistan. For what purpose? Solely to attack the Biden administration in an election year and deflect the scrutiny of their own partisan claims.

Mr. Speaker, we had a committee markup just yesterday. Why avoid regular order? Well, I will tell my colleagues why. If this resolution had gone through committee, we would have been able to go line by line and address either their misleading or outright falsehoods that were made throughout the text.

We could have made clear, for example, how Republicans cherry-picked testimony to reinforce their own predetermined, meaning they made a determination before it was concluded, narrative about the Biden administration while omitting any facts showing that former President Trump initiated the withdrawal; that President Trump's actions undercut U.S. leverage in negotiating with the Taliban; and that President Trump's order to withdraw more and more troops set it into an irreversible motion.

The majority's investigation and this resolution, of course, is not concerned about the facts. What it is really concerned about is the politics.

Why do I say that? That is evidenced by the fact that Republicans released their partisan, misleading report, a report into which, I might say again, Democrats had no input and didn't even see until just hours before Republicans made it public, so it was their secret.

It is evidenced by Republicans' rush yesterday to baselessly hold Secretary Blinken in contempt, even though the Secretary of State, who was with President Biden, engaging in high-level diplomacy with world leaders at the U.N. yesterday, has stated time and time again that he is willing to testify.

Why? What is the rush? What is the urgency? It is not to get answers. It is not to get the facts. The withdrawal was completed more than 3 years ago. Why? The majority wanted to make a spectacle before the November elections. It is clear.

Nothing underscores their partisan theater more than Republicans, get this, naming Vice President Harris over 200 times in their report, and we don't know when the majority added it or not, I believe it was at the last second, and 5 times in the resolution. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle put that in there, despite the fact she is mentioned only three times in over 3,000 pages of transcript interviews. She was mentioned three times.

Vice President Harris was only mentioned twice in the Republicans' interim report in 2022. I wonder what changed. I wonder why, all of a sudden, the majority wants to put her name in it more. Could it have something to do with the elections that are coming up in less than 45 days?

This did not need to be a partisan exercise. No one has claimed on our side of the aisle, or any party, that the withdrawal was perfect. There are clear lessons to be learned.

The State Department even admitted it. The State Department did its own investigation. However, facts are facts, and witnesses consistently made it clear that the Biden administration developed a plan after the Trump administration failed to do so.

I remind Members that the former President initiated this withdrawal when he went from 14,000 troops, upon his taking office, down to 2,500 troops by the end of his term. Multiple witnesses told us that the former President did not have a plan in place to evacuate our Afghan allies or our American citizens, but my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don't want to talk about that.

Witnesses also told us that the dynamic situation on the ground changed dramatically when Afghan President Ghani fled the country, leading to the collapse of the Afghan Government and the military.

I remind my colleagues that President Ghani was here in Washington, D.C., in a meeting with leaders. I was there, and the Republican leadership was there, where he had said that he and the Afghan Government would stay and that they would be there to monitor things. Just a week later, they fled.

Witnesses of the GOP investigation repeatedly told us that while the situation in Kabul was chaotic, the administration's response was not. Our military and diplomats adapted quickly to facilitate the largest airlift in U.S. history to relocate over 120,000 people, and that is why President Biden said it was a success and pulling out of Afghanistan was the right thing to do.

Despite what my Republican colleagues say, our withdrawal did not begin the moment that President Biden took office, though planning for it did.

It was the Trump administration's flawed deal with the Taliban that Republicans don't want to talk about. It is called the Doha deal. It is the deal that initiated our withdrawal and forced the Afghan Government to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners back into the battlefield, which the Republicans don't want to talk about either. This fundamentally changed the power dynamic in Afghanistan. That is not in their report. They don't want to talk about that.

Testimony reaffirmed that Trump's troop drawdowns were not conditions based, but that he even erratically ordered a full withdrawal in his last days of office, a decision that the military leaders essentially overruled. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle don't want to talk about that.

Trump had also frozen the SIV program, leaving the Biden administration with a backlog of more than 17,000 cases to start addressing, and they did. That is not in the majority's report. The majority doesn't want to talk about that either.

Republicans are trying desperately to clean up a candidate who clearly has a flawed record, Trump's record, on this withdrawal, but President Trump himself has bragged that the Biden administration couldn't stop the process if they wanted to. In this case, President Trump, a rarity, was accurate.

Witnesses said that if the withdrawal was reversed, then the only condition in the Doha deal that the Taliban had honored, to stop firing on U.S. troops, would be broken. We would be back at war, and we would have had to send more troops back into Afghanistan.

The President had two options upon taking office: End America's 20- year war in Afghanistan, or massively surge troops for an undeterminable amount of time. As President Biden has said, yes, he made the right decision not to send another generation of Americans to spill blood in Afghanistan. That was the right decision.

Our country owes a deep debt of gratitude to the 2,461 Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan, including the 13 servicemembers tragically killed in the ISIS-K attack at Abbey Gate.

They deserve honest oversight of our longest war, which spanned four administrations. An honest oversight would look over all four, as we thought on our side of the aisle, was the appropriate thing to do if we really wanted to get the facts and make sure that we correct things that took place over that long 20-year time.

This resolution and the report it affirms are not oversight or accountability, they are really election season props to use for political gain.

Thankfully, the nonpartisan Afghanistan War Commission will provide that serious oversight that is necessary, and there is legislation that Congress can pass now to move forward with something impartial and something that will have real credibility. It is something that I believe could really console all of the families of those who lost their lives for our great country in Afghanistan.

We reported bipartisan legislation by Representative Titus to authorize the coordinator for Afghan relocation efforts. I know negotiations continue on legislation by Representative Crow to improve how the State Department responds to crises. It is responsible legislation.

The Afghan Adjustment Act and the Afghan Allies Protection Act, which are longstanding, bipartisan proposals, would keep the faith with the Afghans who fought and worked alongside us. If we are going to do these kinds of reports, they should be bipartisan.

I deeply regret that this is one of the final bills we are likely to take up before election. I don't think it is by accident. We are getting out of here tomorrow. The last thing we are going to be doing is this. I know Republican leadership wanted to make sure of that-- politics.

Even before we voted to keep our government open, this is what my colleagues want to do. This is an unfounded, partisan attack. We should be focused on and at least have the vote on the CR to keep this government open. The American people deserve better.

Let's reject this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, let me quickly rebut my dear friend before I yield to Mr. Sherman.

Number one, it sounds like nothing was done by the administration or anyone else for the last 2, 3 years. The administration has provided over 20,000 pages and made over 15 witnesses available over this entire Congress.

Secretary Blinken has said he did not want to testify. He said he is willing to testify. The first time he was subpoenaed to come was when he was in Egypt negotiating a cease-fire and return of hostages. I think everyone has known that this particular week is U.N. week, so that is not something that is secret. The record is clear on that.

The fact of the matter is, Secretary Blinken has testified over 14 times in Congress to Members of Congress, four of which were in our committee. Delay the investigation? I think not.

Then he is questioning whether or not our memo doesn't cite transcripts. In our memo, 43 of 59 total pages were cut and pasted directly from witnesses' testimony.

What we asked for was transparency for the people, and for some of those transcripts, I had to almost beg for them to be made public. It wasn't automatically made public.

Lastly, Jen Psaki had nothing to do with these decisions. That is just politics.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman).

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman from California.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. First, let me just say this because I heard this at the hearing the other day.

When we were in charge, we held the first hearing after the withdrawal for a Cabinet Secretary on September 21. Who was that witness? Tony Blinken. The administration sent several Cabinet officials to Congress to discuss the withdrawal. We held hearings with Members because our position was trying to work in a bipartisan way and trying to make sure that we were going to get to the facts and understand so that we would never have this situation again after 20 years.

What did we do? We had hearings with people from the Bush administration, from the Obama administration, and from the Trump administration to look at the entire 20-year period of time, not playing politics, not looking at a month or two because they all were interconnected. It wasn't about politics for us.

As clearly stated here, there was no delay. The administration was cooperative. The fact of the matter is, this Congress, the 118th Congress, doesn't end until December 31.

If it is about the facts, if it is about learning the lessons, the Secretary has already said he is willing to testify.

He didn't want to turn his back on his responsibility as the Secretary of State, where he is now in a meeting, unfortunately.

I know maybe some of my Republican colleagues don't want him to talk to President Zelenskyy about what is going on in Ukraine and Russia's invasion into Ukraine. That is what he is doing. Maybe some of my Republican colleagues don't want him to have that discussion.

Well, I think my side of the aisle wants him to have that discussion because that is his job; to have a discussion to try to have a cease- fire and return of hostages, to talk to our allies in the Indo-Pacific and NATO that is now stronger than ever because of Joe Biden. That is his job. That is what he is doing. Maybe some don't want him to do that.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time for the purpose of closing.

Mr. Speaker, the first question in closing is the decision that had to be made because of what the Trump administration had done, was whether to withdraw, as Mr. Sherman has indicated, or to escalate or to stay or to try to bring in more troops. As the generals have testified, if we were going to stay, we were going to need more than the 2,500 that were there.

How long would we stay there?

How many more lives would we lose?

Because the fighting, the generals did say, would resume after the deadline. Yes, Joe Biden decided no more American lives are we going to lose. He made the right decision.

This resolution, as I have said all along, is nothing more than political theater designed to score cheap points rather than address the real issues at hand, the real issues.

It is a distortion of the facts and a disservice to the American people, a disservice to our servicemembers, a disservice to our diplomats, all of whom put their lives on the line during our 20-year war effort there, and their sacrifices should not be used as a political football.

We should be working on real solutions, supporting our Afghan allies, ensuring that we learn the right lessons, and providing accountability that is based on truth, not partisan narratives. There is time for us to still do that.

I urge my colleagues to reject this resolution. Reject it, but let's commit to the American people. Let's commit to those servicemembers and the Gold Star families who have lost their loved ones.

Let's commit to them that today, we are going to work together in a meaningful way that honors their sacrifice, that honors those who serve and uphold the values that we all stand for.

Let us commit to come with a real report, not a partisan one. We can do that. We can do that today. We can stand together today on behalf of the people of the United States of America and those great soldiers.

How do I know that we can do that?

Because the United States of America is the greatest country that this planet has ever seen. It is that when we do things together.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a partial minority staff report.

House of Representatives,

Committee on Foreign Affairs,

Washington, DC, September 9, 2024.

Dear Democratic Members of the Committee:

I am transmitting the attached memorandum prepared by

Committee minority staff summarizing the findings of the

Committee on Foreign Affairs' investigation in the 118th

Congress into the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

I have long voiced my concerns about Republican attempts to

politicize the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. In keeping

with the partisan tenor of this investigation, Committee

Republicans have indicated they will soon release a partisan,

majority report

on the Afghanistan withdrawal. The Majority did not involve

the Minority in this report, nor have they even provided a

draft copy to us. This comes on the heels of former President

Trump using a ceremony to honor 13 American servicemembers

killed in an ISIS-K terrorist attack as a campaign event to

call the Biden-Harris Administration culpable, though

Republicans knew for months that the attack was not

preventable and that, even though a witness told our

Committee he thought he had the ISIS-K bomber in his sights,

he did not. And it follows the Chairman's subpoena to

Secretary of State Blinken this week compelling testimony

Secretary Blinken has already provided to us, including as

the first cabinet official to publicly testify about the

withdrawal in September 2021. The majority has also

threatened to subpoena National Security Advisor Sullivan

after baselessly accusing him of misconduct and, for months,

has cherry-picked witness testimony to exclude anything

unhelpful to a predetermined, partisan narrative about the

Afghanistan withdrawal.

The Republican majority has taken particular pains to avoid

facts involving former President Trump--including his

committing the United States to a full, date-specific

withdrawal in a deal he negotiated with the Taliban that

excluded the Afghan government or any reference to the rights

of Afghan women and girls; his unilateral announcements to

withdraw troops, often a surprise to many of his own senior

officials, which undercut U.S. leverage because those

announcements were divorced from Taliban compliance with the

deal; and his forcing the Afghan government to release 5,000

Taliban fighters back to the battlefield before a final

Taliban offensive ultimately took Kabul. When former

President Trump took office, there were approximately 14,000

American troops in Afghanistan. Days before leaving office,

the former President ordered a further reduction to 2,500.

President Trump initiated a withdrawal that was irreversible

without sending significantly more American troops to

Afghanistan to face renewed combat with the Taliban. All

witnesses who testified on this issue agreed that the United

States would have faced renewed combat with the Taliban had

we not continued the withdrawal. Rather than send more

Americans to fight a war in Afghanistan, President Biden

decided to end it.

Republicans' partisan attempts to garner headlines rather

than acknowledge the full facts and substance of their

investigation have only increased with the heat of an

election season, and after recent public criticisms about the

investigation from former majority staff. With the ascendance

of Vice President Kamala Harris to the top of the Democratic

presidential ticket, the GOP performance has reached a

crescendo--Republicans now claim she was the architect of the

U.S. withdrawal though she is referenced only three times in

3,288 pages of the Committee's interview transcripts.

American taxpayers have funded this Committee's oversight,

and American people deserve the truth. We owe it to them to

highlight the facts elicited in this investigation without

undue spin and with respect for the seriousness of the

subject and the witnesses who have voluntarily testified to

us about it. If information we receive is hidden, twisted, or

used as a political cudgel it will undermine the Committee's

ability to undertake credible oversight going forward. This

is why I pressed the Chairman during a November 2023 hearing

to release all closed-door interview transcripts from this

investigation--five of which remain unreleased--and why I am

now transmitting the attached memorandum to complete the

picture on what this investigation has yielded.

In the September 2021 Committee hearing I referenced with

Secretary Blinken following the U.S. withdrawal from

Afghanistan, I called to mind some numbers to help us find

perspective on the work we were undertaking then and now:

800,000--the number of Americans who served with the U.S.

military in Afghanistan since 2001.

2,461--the number of American military personnel who died

in Afghanistan, including the 13 brave Americans who were

killed by ISIS-K as they facilitated the evacuation of more

than 120,000 people from Afghanistan over the course of 17

days.

66,000--the number of Afghan National Security Forces

killed in the conflict.

47,245--the number of Afghan civilians killed since 2001.

And finally, 20--the number of years we sent our brave men

and women to fight a war in Afghanistan, from which

disentangling ourselves was never going to be easy.

It strikes me now as it did during that hearing that many

of those critical of withdrawal effort simply have a

fundamental objection to President Biden fulfilling his

pledge to be the last Commander-in-Chief to preside over the

war in Afghanistan. They are masking their displeasure with

criticisms but have failed to offer feasible alternatives. We

must continue to wrestle with these matters not to rewrite

the past or assign partisan blame, but to identify lessons

that can help us better fight and end wars in the future.

Sincerely,

Gregory W. Meeks,

Ranking Member.

Mr. Speaker, this is a link to the full report summarizing the findings of the Committee on Foreign Affairs' investigation in the 118th Congress into the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Https:// democrats-foreignaffairs.house.gov/_cache/files/a /0/a05d09c4_4b27- 4382_9818_0227a0156896/70CCFC2998DF 868322F60057FF59079D.hfac- democratic-staff-memo-afghanistan-investigation-final-for-posting.pdf.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, since day one of this Congress, the Republican majority has been a complete and total disaster--failed speakerships, failed rules votes, failed bills, failure to address real problems, failure to pass real solutions, and failure to even send bills to the Senate. Today is more of the same, more failure from this dysfunctional Republican majority.

Speaker Johnson promised he would get all 12 appropriations bills across the finish line before August. They couldn't even pass half of them. He tried to coax the MAGA extremists into voting for a continuing resolution by tacking on more election fraud conspiracies. That plan went down in flames.

Here we are, a week before the government shuts down, and Republicans had to move on to a new plan. Despite the Rules Committee taking testimony from appropriators last night on the continuing resolution, there is no CR in this rule. I checked. I double checked. I made sure nothing was stuck to the pages. I looked under the table.

What was the point of that exercise last night in the Rules Committee other than to once again demonstrate that this Republican majority cannot fulfill its most basic function, keeping the government open without help from Democrats?

Let's be clear. Their majority is not a working majority. They don't have the votes without Democrats, so my friends are putting up a continuing resolution on suspension and, once again, they are asking Democrats to bail them out.

Madam Speaker, when will the other side stop letting the MAGA extremists run this place?

Look at the bills that are coming to the floor today: More MAGA messaging measures that will never, ever become law. It is pathetic. There is a bill that claims to be tough on China. Well, let me tell you, there are very few people who are as tough a critic as I am when it comes to China's human rights record. I think I am one of a handful, only a handful, of legislators in this body and the other body who have actually been sanctioned by China. I am not even allowed in the country nor is my family. Believe me when I say this is a stupid way to handle a complicated geopolitical challenge. We need to be smart on China. We need to pass bills that actually get results, not just pass bills that sound tough on paper, which is all this bill is.

Then, we have another no-good bill that Republicans claim will tackle crime, but we all know what this is really about. This bill's only purpose is to attack Vice President Harris.

The former President keeps spinning the narrative on the campaign trail that crime is at an all-time high. He has trouble with facts.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert into the Record an article: ``Murder and other violent crime dropped across the U.S. last year, FBI data shows.''

This report was released yesterday, by the way. The data shows that violent crime has dropped in recent years, but Republicans are ignoring these facts and choosing to push messaging bills like this one instead.

It really is quite sad that that is kind of the state of affairs on the Republican side.

Look, I get it. I get it. My Republican friends are afraid because Vice President Harris was a prosecutor who put felons in jail, and, well, I will just let everyone who is watching fill in the rest.

Then, we have an absurd, nonbinding resolution that politicizes the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Playing politics with this is disgusting.

This is not about honoring our fallen soldiers. This is about politics at its worst.

This bill didn't even go through regular order. It was introduced 5 days ago and didn't go through committee.

Republicans were so anxious to get this resolution to the floor before the election that they didn't even get Members' input. Was it written by the Trump campaign? I mean, give me a break.

This is not the way we honor our fallen soldiers. We don't play politics with tragedies.

Let me just state for the record, thanks to President Biden and Vice President Harris, for the first time in decades, the United States is not at war anywhere in this world.

Finally, we have the Fix Our Forests Act. In my opinion, this is a pro-polluter bill that ignores the realities of climate change when it comes to wildfires.

I will be opposing this bill because the so-called Fix Our Forests Act will not fix our forests. Instead, I think it would bypass critical environmental laws, cut out scientific input, and undermine our Nation's core environmental laws.

Madam Speaker, look, here is the reality: Republicans have fumbled left and right over the last 2 years. They really have become the party of broken promises, wasting everybody's time and wasting taxpayer money on absurd messaging bills that are going nowhere.

While we have real challenges in this country, this is the junk they bring to the floor. People want us to work together to get things done, and instead, this majority spends their time fighting amongst themselves and accomplishing absolutely nothing for the American people.

It is simple, really. The other side wants to come down here and talk about anything other than their plans for the future because when they do that, people see how weird they are.

They don't want to talk about Project 2025, their dystopian plan to take total control of our country, dismantle our system of checks and balances, and take away people's freedoms.

They don't want to talk about how their draconian abortion bans are killing women and putting them at extreme risks.

They don't want to talk about how 9 years after starting to run for President, Donald Trump still doesn't have an actual plan to provide better healthcare for the American people.

They don't want to talk about how Donald Trump's big economic plan would result in average families spending an extra $4,000 per year-- $4,000 more per year that families would pay if his plans were enacted.

They come down here and bring up some absurd messaging bills to avoid talking about how weird and unpopular their agenda is.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, the gentleman from Texas says that the Biden administration is weak. I guess the gentleman and I have a different definition of what weakness looks like.

It was Republicans, by the way, not Joe Biden, who held up aid for our allies for 9 months because their side buys into Kremlin propaganda. I think that is weak, quite frankly.

It was a Republican President who went to North Korea and tried to get a brutal dictator to like him. He actually said they wrote each other love letters. He went there and groveled to Kim Jong Un. I don't think that that is a sign of strength. I think that is a sign of weakness.

It is the Republican candidate for President who praises Putin on a regular basis, calls him Vladimir, loves Xi Jinping, says Viktor Orban is fantastic.

Don't even lecture us about human rights when the majority can't bring itself to be critical of what the Republican standard-bearer says on a regular basis. That is not strength. That is pathetic. It makes us look weak.

Meanwhile, after they wrecked our image on the world stage, it is President Joe Biden who has had to rebuild it. I don't call that weakness. I call that a sign of strength. Standing with our NATO allies, standing with the people of Ukraine as Russia drops bombs on them on a regular basis, that is not weakness. That is strength.

The gentleman from New York, I mean, listening to him speak, one would think that we are living in 14th century Europe during the black plague.

The fact is that we live in the best place in the world. There is no other place in the world I would rather live than in the United States of America, and it is the best time in history, quite frankly, for a whole bunch of reasons.

Please don't put words in my mouth. I didn't say that none of our soldiers were in harm's way. I said we are living in a time when we were not at war with any country. That is what I said. I have to insist on accuracy when it comes to my words.

We can do better, and we should work to improve the lives of the people we represent.

Crime is down. The gentleman from New York who just spoke apparently wasn't here when I inserted the FBI report, but that is facts. Crime is down.

The economy is strong and growing stronger.

Science is improving our lives in new ways every single day. It is amazing.

The Republican agenda of division and hate only takes us backward. Let's go forward. Let's work together on something, and maybe we can start today. Rather than politicizing the tragic deaths of American servicemen, maybe we can start the day today by actually helping our veterans, something that my Republican friends have a hard time trying to do.

Madam Speaker, I urge that we defeat the previous question, and if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to include an additional $12 billion in the continuing resolution that our Nation's veterans need for their healthcare.

Madam Speaker, let's remember how we got here. Republicans talked a big game all Congress about how they were going to return to regular order and pass 12 individual appropriation bills, but consistent with the theme of dysfunction for this Republican majority, they instead spent months fighting amongst themselves.

What was the result? How many awful, partisan, go-nowhere appropriation bills were they actually able to pass? Madam Speaker, 5, 5 out of 12, and they didn't even send the Homeland Security appropriations bill over to the Senate. Why? Because they threw a tantrum and refused to send their Homeland Security appropriations bill to the Senate unless their awful H.R. 2 border bill got signed into law.

That is not how this works. They need to watch ``Schoolhouse Rock!'' Maybe they can learn something.

Once again, Democrats are the adults in the room who are being asked to come in and clean up the Republican mess--in this case, to ensure that our basic responsibility of governing is met: Keeping the lights on.

Now, the continuing resolution that we will consider later this week has some good pieces in it, and it will keep the American people's government open for another 3 months, but there is always room for improvement.

That is why I am offering this amendment to provide an extra $12 billion to maintain medical care for veterans, money that the Department of Veterans Affairs says that they will need. Our veterans deserve our support. It is our responsibility to provide the care that they have earned.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment into the Record along with any extraneous material immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Deluzio) to discuss our proposal.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would just say to the gentleman from Texas that I am sorry that I guess I hurt his feelings with some of the things I have said, but it is the truth, and I guess the truth hurts.

Madam Speaker, earlier I said that this majority has turned the Republican Party into a circus of chaos, broken promises, and failures.

Let's talk about that just a little bit more, shall we?

Since last January, this majority wasted 26 entire days, nearly a month, on fighting with each other as they tried to elect a Speaker of the House. Madam Speaker, 5 days were spent electing Kevin McCarthy, who was then booted out of the speakership and ended up leaving office. Madam Speaker, 21 days were spent as the Republican Conference argued about who was next in line. We ended up with Speaker Johnson, and we went from a bad Speaker to an even worse one.

That is nearly a month. That is nearly a month completely wasted on nothing more than bickering amongst themselves.

I will also remind you, Madam Speaker, the House was held hostage for days in June of last year because a tiny, extreme faction of the Republican Conference chose to throw a fit over the debt deal negotiated by President Biden and Speaker McCarthy.

Republicans struck down a rule on the floor for the first time in over two decades, holding the House floor schedule hostage all for camera time while MAGA threw a fit.

Now, we have seen a total of seven failed rules in this Congress, seven. Hell, we have even seen Republicans vote down not just the rules but vote down their own bills because there are times even conservative Members have thought the MAGA weirdo bills are just too weird and too extreme.

Get this, Madam Speaker, even when House Republicans manage to succeed, they fail to govern.

We keep hearing them complain about the border.

News flash, they passed the Department of Homeland Security funding bill 3 months ago, and they never sent it to the Senate. They put it in a filing cabinet and locked the door.

What is this, hide and seek? They are passing bills and hiding them in the basement so they can complain about the border more and more and more instead of trying to fix it. Someone needs to show these guys ``Schoolhouse Rock!'' I mean, we are talking about their number one priority, and they don't even send the bill over to the Senate.

It just shows how fake all their outrage is about the border.

I will leave you with this, Madam Speaker: Despite all the talk from this Republican majority that the 118th Congress would be the most open Congress ever, last night Republicans, again, broke their own record for the most closed Congress in the history of the country.

In addition to being the most ineffective and dysfunctional Congress in history, it is now also the most closed. Republicans have advanced 106--I am sorry. It is actually now 108. There are two more closed rules in the rule we are talking about today. Before they broke their record, their previous record was 103 closed rules when Paul Ryan was Speaker.

That means that they broke their own record for the most closed Congress in history. They are going to be unbeatable when it comes to a closed Congress.

Madam Speaker, it is more than about numbers. It is about what they represent.

As of this week, Republicans have now blocked 5,822 amendments from debate. They have even blocked the majority of their own Members' amendments from coming to the floor from debate.

It is ironic, the party that calls us snowflakes is afraid to even allow debate on the merits of these amendments.

Every amendment they block is another idea that is prevented from a vote on the House floor.

Now, let's look at some of the examples of what they thought was too crazy to bring to the floor.

They blocked an amendment blocking smuggling of U.S. firearms across the Mexican border. They thought that was too radical to bring to the floor.

They blocked an amendment protecting food for seniors participating in Meals on Wheels.

They blocked an amendment providing postpartum mental health information to pregnant students. By the way, that was a Republican amendment.

Look, we know Republicans have the majority. These amendments might lose, but a truly open and inclusive process that Republicans promised would let us debate these issues on the merits.

It is all part of a pattern. They are afraid of debating because they don't want to engage on policy. For them this is all just a game. It is about trying to hold onto power for the sake of holding onto power.

It is one broken promise after another from these guys. The truth is, Republicans have nothing, nothing, nothing to show for their time in power, just incompetence and chaos.

That is why I think people will be rejecting them in November.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

The gentleman just put forward a straw man argument. The way it usually works is the Rules Committee sends out a notice asking for amendments that sets a deadline. It gives a week for our people to construct their ideas and send them to the Rules Committee.

On this package, they never sent out a notice or a deadline. I mean, the reality is, I think everybody already knew what was coming.

I am going to tell you, there is no defense for being the most closed Congress in the history of the United States. They fight amongst themselves and they basically work overtime to prevent thoughtful ideas from coming to the floor. They are good about debating trivial issues passionately, but they are not very good about debating important ones. Everything that they bring to the floor is not about moving the ball forward in terms of helping improve the quality of life for the American people. It is all about messaging and gotcha and division and pushing hate in this country. It just has to stop, and hopefully it will.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to how many speakers the gentleman has remaining?

Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I have already spoken about why these messaging measures will do nothing to help Americans, what a complete disaster this dysfunctional Republican majority has been, and how their weird, unpopular agenda is wrong for this country.

Now, I want to speak to you, Madam Speaker, and to the American people about the alternative, about what President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Democrats here in Congress have accomplished and what we will continue to fight for in the years to come.

Democrats delivered the American Rescue Plan, helping to end the COVID crisis and reopening our economy that was shut down under Donald Trump.

Democrats delivered the CHIPS and Science Act, bringing jobs back from China and supply chains back from overseas.

Democrats delivered the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a historic investment that will rebuild our infrastructure for generations and generations to come.

Democrats delivered the bipartisan Honoring our PACT Act, expanding VA healthcare and benefits for millions and millions of veterans who have been exposed to burn pits and other toxic substances.

Democrats delivered the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most significant piece of gun violence prevention legislation in nearly 30 years.

That is what leadership looks like. It looks like making this country better. It looks like imagining and doing big things. It looks like finding common ground across the aisle where and when we can. It looks like delivering real, concrete results for the people of this country.

Democrats fight for lower prices. We fight to build an opportunity economy. We fight to protect our freedoms. We fight to ensure liberty and justice for every single American.

We believe good policy can unite people. We want to bring people together and focus on what we have in common in this country because there is so much more that unites us than divides us.

Madam Speaker, people are fed up with this majority's dysfunction. They are fed up with Republican incompetence.

What we Democrats, President Biden, and Vice President Harris offer is the opposite. Instead of division, Democrats offer unity. Instead of talking about the past and complaining, Democrats talk about the future and giving people hope. Instead of dysfunction, we will run this country like professionals and get stuff done to make America the best it can be.

The choice this November is a consequential one, Madam Speaker, and we can continue down the same failed path of dysfunction and disarray, or we can fire this failed MAGA majority. We can let Republicans keep sowing anger and hate, or we can let Democrats bring some decency and dignity back to this place. We can let Republicans continue fighting with each other, or we can let Democrats fight on behalf of the American people.

That is what is on the line this November, and the choice could not be more clear.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 1486 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Madam Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only.

General Leave

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that amendment No. 3 printed in Part D of House Report 118-705, to be offered by the gentleman from California (Mr. Valadao) or a designee, be modified by the amendment I have placed at the desk.

Madam Speaker, last night, the House Committee on Rules met to report House Resolution 1486, providing for the consideration of four pieces of legislation.

First, the rule provides for consideration of H. Res. 1469, condemning the Biden-Harris administration and individuals therein responsible for the military withdrawal of Afghanistan and subsequent evacuation. This will be considered under a closed rule, with 1 hour of debate equally divided by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Second, the rule provides for consideration of H.R. 3334, the STOP CCP Act, under a structured rule, with 1 hour of debate equally divided by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and provides one motion to recommit.

Third, the rule provides for consideration of H.R. 8205, the Keeping Violent Offenders Off Our Streets Act, under a closed rule, with 1 hour of debate equally divided between the chair and the ranking minority member of the Committee on the Judiciary and provides for one motion to recommit.

The rule also provides for consideration of H.R. 8790, the Fix Our Forests Act, under a structured rule, with 1 hour of debate equally divided between the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Natural Resources and provides one motion to recommit.

Finally, the rule provides clarification in House rules regarding the regulations governing the availability of remote witness testimony.

Madam Speaker, it has been over 3 years since the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan; 3 years since 13 members of our armed services fell on account of the Biden-Harris administration's rushed operation to fulfill a campaign promise; 3 years of not one single acknowledgment by the President, the Democratic nominee for President, the current Vice President, or anyone in the administration, for that matter, to acknowledge what happened in August 2021.

For better or for worse, the American people saw this tragedy with their own eyes, as Afghan civilians clung to an airplane leaving Kabul airport, and the American people have been awaiting accountability from those responsible for a long time.

Well, that wait ends this week when the House considers H. Res. 1469 to condemn those in the Biden-Harris administration responsible for the events that led up to and unfolded in July and August of 2021.

Despite the Biden-Harris administration's incessant stonewalling of proper congressional oversight and accountability, Chairman McCaul and the Foreign Affairs Committee have investigated the events surrounding and during the Afghanistan withdrawal. Their recently released report is as stunning as it is outrageous.

The Biden-Harris administration ignored that the Taliban was not meeting its obligations under the Doha agreement. For example, the Taliban had yet to cut ties with al-Qaida by the time the evacuation started, something that the Biden-Harris administration knew.

Secondly, the administration prioritized optics and political expediency over the safety of our servicemembers and civilian personnel. The Taliban had already entered Kabul before the evacuation of nonmilitary personnel began.

Third, they failed to plan for the go-to-zero order appropriately, which led to the deadliest attack on U.S. military personnel in a decade.

Fourth, the failures damaged America's credibility and standing in the world. I cannot stress enough the significance of these events. We abandoned our allies, leaving them to slaughter, and allowed terrorism once again to flourish in the area.

Fifth, there was a concerted and deliberate misinformation campaign that

touched nearly every stage of the withdrawal.

These failures have had a profound impact on our country, but not a single person in the Biden-Harris administration has yet been held accountable.

Recruitment into our military has plummeted after the prospective servicemembers saw that they would basically be used as disposable chess pawns in a political promise.

The Taliban has organized a de facto permanent regime built on torture, violence, and religious and political oppression. Without a United States presence in the area, counterterrorism operations have been hindered, and foreign adversaries like China have moved in to establish diplomatic relations with the regime.

Most importantly, however, these events signaled weakness, emboldening China, Russia, and their proxies to become more aggressive with their geopolitical ambitions. China became emboldened to pursue its objectives with respect to Taiwan. Russian leaders saw an opening, and they invaded Ukraine, knowing that the United States was weak and could not be trusted, a shameful and disastrous series of events that our country is paying the price for currently and will continue to pay this price for decades.

Afghanistan is not the only area where the Biden-Harris administration has shown weakness. This week, the House of Representatives will consider the STOP CCP Act, which will impose significant and punitive sanctions on individuals of the Chinese Communist Party.

Madam Speaker, there is broad agreement in this body over the atrocities of the Chinese Communist Party. Where we seemingly don't agree is whether there should be consequences for these atrocities. Up to this point, the Biden-Harris administration has yet to impose any meaningful sanction on the Chinese Government officials for their political and religious oppression of their own people. The STOP CCP Act forces the administration to finally do so and speak loudly that oppression of God-given rights will be met with consequence.

Speaking of consequences, the Keeping Violent Offenders Off Our Streets Act imposes strict regulations and penalties on charitable bond funds, whose funding has exploded in recent years as a result of the George Floyd protests in the summer of 2020. These funds, like the Minnesota Freedom Fund, bail out violent criminals who in many cases then go on to commit more crime. H.R. 8205 ensures that these funds are subject to penalties and licensing requirements to protect our communities and keep criminals where they belong, which is behind bars.

The final bill provided under the rule, the Fix Our Forests Act, is bipartisan legislation that addresses the wildfire crisis across the country. Now, in classic fashion, the Biden-Harris administration and their allies in Congress spent billions of dollars to address the increase in wildfire occurrences and their severity without fixing the underlying problem: bureaucratic red tape and extreme environmental and serial litigators that prevent the correct management of forests.

H.R. 8790 makes targeted, yet transformational, changes to the Federal agencies responsible for our forests to improve the way we manage our forests and ensure projects are not held up in the bureaucracy or in the courts.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the rule and the underlying bills, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, before I go to the gentleman from New York, I do want to point out that, sadly, in January of this year, January 29, 2024, three U.S. soldiers were killed in Jordan. The three soldiers are Sergeant William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Georgia; Specialist Kennedy Ladon Sanders of Waycross, Georgia; and Specialist Breonna Alexsondria Moffett of Savannah, Georgia. All were assigned to the 718th Engineer Company, 926th Engineer Battalion, Fort Moore, Georgia.

Do not continue to repeat the lie that we have no soldiers standing in harm's way during the Biden administration. It was brought up during the debate by the Vice President. It was wrong then. It is wrong now.

We have soldiers on the ground in Iran and Syria. Of course, there are soldiers deployed in the Continent of Africa. We can't forget everything that is happening right now with the Houthi rebels placing our servicemembers in danger.

Do not make the mistake that the world is completely at peace under the beneficence of the current Biden administration.

Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Langworthy), a valuable member of the Rules Committee.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes.

First off, I do want to remind the House that the House passed $3 billion in veterans funding last week and sent it over to the Senate. This gives us time to act on further veterans funding prior to the December 20 deadline that will be part of the continuing resolution that will pass later this week.

The Military Construction-VA appropriations bill was, in fact, the first House-passed appropriations bill. Representative Carter from Texas led that subcommittee and passed that bill much earlier in the year. It has been sitting over in the Senate. It hasn't seen any activity. That bill actually could have been passed by both the House and the Senate and signed by the President of the United States.

I am grateful that my counterpart, the ranking member of the committee, allowed you to see, Madam Speaker, what I live with on a daily basis, which is a severe case of Trump derangement syndrome. We see it on display in the Rules Committee almost continuously. You have heard a brief exposure of that today on the floor of the House.

I apologize to the country that they had to put up with that, but, again, this is my life in the Rules Committee. Trump derangement syndrome is alive and well and put forth on virtually every argument that goes forth in the Rules Committee.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes.

The rules brought forth today, two are closed, but in both instances, neither received an amendment in which to make in order. If there are no amendments, by definition, then it is a closed rule.

I do want to point out that this majority has reported nearly twice the number of bills as the last Congress when the gentleman, the ranking member, was, in fact, the chairman of the committee. I would also like to point out that since there was a change in the chairman of the Rules Committee, all Rules Committee votes have passed on the floor. I hope that pattern continues today.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close after the gentleman closes.

Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time I have remaining.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time on the Republican side.

Madam Speaker, it is ironic that we keep hearing about unity. I heard the word ``unity'' I don't know how many times during the inaugural address of President Biden, yet it is virtually impossible for a Republican to get a telephone call answered from the head of any Federal agency.

This has been the most walled-off administration that I have ever seen. I served in the Bush Presidency, the Obama Presidency, and the Trump Presidency, and I have never seen an administration that behaves in the way this administration does.

The gentleman referenced the aid to the country of Ukraine. I voted for that aid package in June 2022. We didn't get a lot of information before the bill was brought to the floor. Then-Speaker Pelosi brought it rather hurriedly. It came to the Rules Committee in an emergency hearing, but what was happening in Ukraine seemed so horrific that any ability to help seemed important.

Then I waited after that vote. I waited for the administration to come to talk to us about what the strategy is, where we are going, and what the plan is. Is there an exit strategy out there somewhere?

Again, we had another vote last March, once again hoping that the administration would begin to behave differently and at least inform the Congress of what their plans were. I voted again for that aid package. I caught a lot of grief from my constituents back home for voting for that package. At the same time, once again, no information was forthcoming from the administration, no plan and no strategy.

Madam Speaker, we had big meetings over in the auditorium in the Capitol Visitor Center just prior to the invasion of Ukraine. All the generals and Cabinet Secretaries were there. They told us that it was too late, that there was nothing we could do, and that Ukraine would fall in 3 days. They didn't.

That is when the administration came back and started asking for these aid packages, but never once did they fill in the blanks of: this is what we plan to do, this is where we plan to go.

Even today, the administration seems to be arguing with itself. Do we allow for Ukraine to use that aid in a more robust way to defend itself, or is it all just purely risk-averse defense spending that they will do?

Again, we don't know. I would love to hear the administration give us a reason why it is important to continue to send American tax dollars because they have a plan for victory and a plan for ending the war.

We heard a lot of discussion about the previous administration, the Trump administration, and the world was never more prosperous and at peace.

Madam Speaker, do you remember the comment in early October last year when the statement was made by the administration that they have never seen the Middle East more quiet than it is today? Oh, my God, where are we now? Where are we now?

Where are the plans of the administration? When are they going to come to talk to us about the correct way forward?

We hear arguments internally, arguments with the administration arguing with itself. We heard the Vice President and the President basically arguing about the way forward with what to do with the problems in the Middle East, but, again, no one comes to us and lays out what the plan is going forward.

Madam Speaker, I have never seen a world more dangerous than it is today. I feel as if we are living on a knife's

edge and that, at any point, one false move, one miscalculation by one individual, could lead the world into a confrontation and conflagration the likes of which the world has never seen before.

We do need to be concerned about that. We do need the United States to lead. We need a strong leader in the United States, and I would argue that the prior President evidenced that type of strong leadership, and the world was a safer place. The world was a more prosperous place.

Now, since the gentleman brought up the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan, these were the very matches that lit the fuse on inflation in this country in January 2021.

Inflation was at 1.6 percent in December 2020. Then, a year later, where was it? It was going up toward 8 percent.

The Secretary of the Treasury said she thought it would be transitory. The Chair of the Federal Reserve thought it would self- correct. Then it didn't, and the American people suffered.

Why weren't we concerned about the suffering of the American people in the last Congress when we continued to lay spending bill over spending bill, which the people could no longer afford?

So, yes, it is tough. Now, we are having to dial some of that back, and it is not easy. Any time the Federal Government spends a dollar, it immediately creates a constituency, and it is difficult to dial those dollars back.

We argue with ourselves here in the Congress about what the best path forward is, but at the same time, we have an obligation. We have an obligation to fund the government, which we will have an opportunity to do later this week.

Madam Speaker, I do want to urge colleagues to support this rule. I do want to encourage colleagues to support the underlying legislation. I do want us to hold the Federal agencies accountable to the American people, solve critical issues for our constituents, and restore American strength on the world stage.

I said in committee yesterday that these bills are about accountability to the governed, respect for law and order, strength on the world stage, and rightsizing Federal agencies. These are the core tenets of House Republicans. That is what we pledged to the American people, and it is what the American people expect from this body.

Madam Speaker, I, again, urge my colleagues to support the rule and support the underlying legislation.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1486, I call up the resolution (H. Res. 1469) ensuring accountability for key officials in the Biden-Harris administration responsible for decisionmaking and execution failures throughout the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, 3 years ago, the world witnessed one of the most devastating foreign policy disasters in American history. The Biden- Harris administration withdrew all U.S. forces from Afghanistan with no plan, no care, and no remorse.

As a result, 13 brave U.S. servicemembers and over 170 Afghan civilians were murdered, and 45 U.S. servicemembers and countless others were injured.

Just this month National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby was asked whether there had been any accountability for the administration's deadly and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

He responded: ``We've all held ourselves accountable.''

That answer, Mr. Speaker, is detached from all reality.

Today, the administration touts that deadly withdrawal as a success, and they have yet to hold a single person accountable for their role in this tragedy. In fact, many of those responsible for this catastrophe have actually been promoted.

If the administration refuses to hold itself accountable, then Congress must.

On April 14, 2021, the President announced the Biden-Harris administration would withdraw all troops from Afghanistan, no matter the cost or the consequence. They ignored the Taliban's violations of the Doha agreement. They ignored objections by our Nation's top military and intelligence experts, and they ignored objections by our NATO allies.

According to the administration's own admission, the Doha agreement was immaterial to that decision.

Following President Biden's go-to-zero order, the Taliban captured province after province in Afghanistan. Afghanistan's collapse was all but set in stone.

Astoundingly, this administration did nothing to plan for an evacuation. Instead, they denied threats to American interests, American citizens, and our decades-long Afghan partners.

On August 15, 2021, after months of Taliban advances, Kabul fell. The administration's utter failure to prepare became painfully clear.

President Biden claimed the very next day that his administration had planned for all contingencies. Nothing could be further from the truth.

At every step, the administration prioritized the optics and the politics of the withdrawal over the security of U.S. personnel and diplomats on the ground.

To protect their partisan aims, they ignored the well-known terrorist threats from ISIS-K and the Taliban to our servicemembers, diplomats, citizens, and allies.

The Biden-Harris administration instead chose to treat the Taliban-- the very terrorists that we had been fighting for 20 years--as security partners, for God's sake, security partners during the evacuation.

This administration created the very environment that allowed an ISIS-K terrorist to pass through a Taliban checkpoint, because, Mr. Speaker, we put the Taliban in charge of the checkpoint.

Mr. Speaker, guess who let the suicide bomber through?

It was the Taliban.

The result of that was the deadliest day for American troops in Afghanistan since 2021.

On August 26, 2021, that terrorist detonated a suicide vest, murdering 13 U.S. servicemembers and over 170 Afghan civilians, and injuring 45 U.S.

servicemembers and countless civilians.

Rather than admit their failure, this administration continues to this day to celebrate their deadly evacuation. Never once have they said they are sorry to the Gold Star families.

It took the Speaker of the House at the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony to say: I am sorry for what your government did to you.

Just yesterday, President Biden proclaimed to the world that his withdrawal was ``the right decision.''

I believe that is shameful.

When I became chairman, I launched an investigation so that we, the Congress, could work to ensure that what happened in Afghanistan never happens again.

As everyone here knows, you cannot begin to fix a problem without first admitting that there is a problem. That is what accountability is all about.

My 353-page report on this investigation works to provide that accountability. Today, we take the first step in fixing the problem by holding accountable those leaders who were derelict in their duty and are responsible for this disaster.

They are Joseph Biden, President of the United States; Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States; Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor; Jonathan Finer, Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor; Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Deputy National Security Advisor; John Kirby, National Security Council spokesperson and former Defense Department Spokesperson; Jen Psaki, former White House Press Secretary; Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State; Brian McKeon, former Deputy Secretary of State; Ross Wilson, U.S. Ambassador and former Chief of Mission to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul; Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. Ambassador and former Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation; Ned Price, Deputy to the U.S. Representative to the United Nations and former State Department Spokesperson; Lloyd Austin, U.S. Secretary of Defense; Derek Chollet, Chief of Staff to Secretary Austin and former Counselor to Secretary Blinken; and, finally, Colin Kahl, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

The American people, U.S. servicemembers, veterans, and, most importantly, the Gold Star families, deserve this. They deserve transparency, and they deserve, Mr. Speaker, accountability. This measure is the first step toward that, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Committee on Armed Services,

House of Representatives,

Washington, DC, September 24, 2024.

Hon. Michael T. McCaul,

House Committee on Foreign Affairs,

Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman McCaul: I write concerning H. Res. 1469, a

resolution condemning the Biden-Harris Administration's

disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. As a result of your

having consulted with us on provisions within H. Res. 1469

that fall within the Rule X jurisdiction of the Committee on

Armed Services, I agree to forego any further consideration

of this resolution so that it may proceed expeditiously to

the House floor for consideration.

The Committee on Armed Services takes this action with our

mutual understanding that by foregoing consideration of H.

Res. 1469 at this time, we do not waive any jurisdiction over

subject matter contained in this or similar legislation and

that our committee will be appropriately consulted and

involved as this resolution or similar legislation moves

forward so that we may address any remaining issues in our

jurisdiction.

Finally, I ask that a copy of our exchange of letters on

this matter be included by House Committee on Foreign Affairs

in the Congressional Record during floor consideration, to

memorialize our understanding. Thank you for the cooperative

spirit in which you have worked regarding this matter and

others between our respective committees.

Sincerely,

Michael D. Rogers,

Chairman, House Committee

on Armed Services.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I will address some of the points. I can tell my good friend from New York (Mr. Meeks) has some prosecutorial background, like myself, and I commend him for his skillful arguments.

I will address the argument that this is all political. The timing of our investigation and this report was not of my making. It was not my timeline. It was deliberately delayed by this administration, I think, in a plan to take it well beyond this election, well beyond this Congress.

Fortunately, we had it done in September, and we invited the Secretary to testify about the report. He declined to show up, saying he had no time for the Congress, not one day in September.

Secondly, they had nothing to do with this report. Every transcribed interview had full participation by Members in the minority, Members on the other side of the aisle. They were full participants.

I would have to say, with respect to the report itself, we have 1,812 citations with a very thorough, historic document. Their report is a 50-page memorandum that doesn't even cite to a single piece of the 20,000 pages the administration presented to us after a threat of holding the Secretary in contempt.

The Dissent Channel and the after-action report were the testimonies of the diplomats themselves on the ground. That is what is in our report. That is not political. It is not opinion based, other than what the generals were thinking on the ground and the diplomats were thinking on the ground at the time of the fall.

What is despicable is that Ambassador Wilson abandoned his own Afghan employees and left them to the mercy of the Taliban, and I am sure many of them were executed, along with many of the diplomats in the Embassy.

There is just so much more that I could talk about, and I am sure we will, but the fact is, I take pride in the work we did. I did it as a Federal prosecutor would, along with my team, who is also a former Federal prosecutor, methodically building our case.

We never threw advanced conclusions out. We never made judgment calls in advance. We didn't do much with press on this. We built our case, and all roads lead to the Secretary of State, Jake Sullivan, and the National Security Council. I believe those are the facts.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I love this argument. This is all Donald Trump's fault.

I would submit to you: Who made the decision to go to zero? You know what that means? Go to zero means withdraw all troops, withdraw all air cover, and withdraw all contractors.

That is precisely why Afghanistan imploded as fast as it did and why President Ghani, like a coward, left his people behind.

All of this talk about Doha is immaterial. Don't take my word for that. That is exactly what the White House said.

The Doha agreement was immaterial to the President's political decision, which, by the way, was going to happen on September 11. What an insult to the victims' families of 9/11.

The fact is, Donald Trump left troops in Afghanistan after his advisers told him that the Doha agreement was being violated by the Taliban.

They didn't cut their ties to al-Qaida. They did hit our troops. As a result, Donald Trump kept 2,500 American troops in Afghanistan and 6,500 NATO troops.

They will tell you that wasn't sufficient. Don't take my word again. Take the word of his top military generals: Milley, McKenzie, and Miller.

Ask for investigations. What did they do when they were in charge?

They had one hearing and no investigation. You talk about political, to cover up the tracks of this administration's disastrous withdrawal.

Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close. I have no further speakers and reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Let me just say to my good friend for whom I have tremendous respect, we work together on many bipartisan things, and when we don't agree, we do so civilly. However, I cannot disagree with you more than I do today.

One of the byproducts of Bagram falling is 7,000 ISIS were released from Bagram prisons. Some of them have found their way into the United States.

What happened in Afghanistan is a tragedy, one of the worst foreign policy failures in our Nation's history.

Who could ever forget the harrowing images of Afghans falling off the planes and babies being flung over barbed wire in a desperate attempt by mothers to save their children and escape Afghanistan under Taliban rule?

The women that Mr. Wilson referred to, left behind along with American citizens, are now enslaved under Taliban Sharia law. We are the United States of America. You can't tell me we couldn't have safely evacuated U.S. personnel, Americans, and our brave Afghan allies.

My report shows the administration had the information and the opportunity to do so, but every step of the way, they chose political optics over the safety of Americans. Their deadly and chaotic withdrawal started a chain of events that have led to a world on fire.

We are witnessing the largest land invasion in Europe since World War II with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the CCP has become emboldened and more belligerent in their aggression toward Taiwan, and there is a war raging in the Middle East, Mr. Speaker, with the Ayatollah now rearing his ugly head.

That didn't happen by accident. It happened by design, and it started with the fall of Afghanistan. When you project weakness on the world stage, this is what you get: a world on fire inviting aggression from our adversaries.

Our U.S. national security is degraded, America's credibility on the world stage is damaged, and the moral injury to the American veterans and servicemembers is a stain, an ugly stain, on this administration's legacy.

I close, Mr. Speaker, with a reminder of the consequences of the actions of those named in this resolution, and it is the 13 heroic U.S. servicemembers who made the ultimate sacrifice. I have met with their loved ones, and they live with pain every single day. They wake up to it every single day.

These servicemembers paid with their lives because of this administration's failure on August 26, 2021, and I, for one, in this Chamber, in this House, say I am sorry for what your government did to you.

In their honor, I will read their names:

Marine Lance Corporal David Lee Espinoza

Marine Sergeant Nicole Gee

Marine Staff Sergeant Taylor Hoover

Army Staff Sergeant Ryan Christian Knauss

Marine Corporal Hunter Lopez

Marine Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum

Marine Lance Corporal Dylan Merola

Marine Lance Corporal Kareem Nikoui

Marine Sergeant Johanny Rosario Pichardo

Marine Corporal Humberto Sanchez

Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz

Navy Corpsman Maxton Soviak

Marine Corporal Daegan William-Tyeler Page

Nothing will bring their lives back. Nothing will bring these children back to their parents, but we can hold those responsible accountable, and that is what this resolution does.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, a decade ago, we faced a tough situation in Afghanistan. We could have stayed indefinitely at a cost of $50 billion a year and perhaps a dozen casualties a year, but then Donald Trump promised the American people that we would withdraw and that, at that point, it was no longer a possibility that America would remain indefinitely.

So what was accomplished during the Obama administration in Afghanistan? One important thing: We got bin Laden. What was accomplished during the Biden administration? A very difficult withdrawal, one of the most difficult military maneuvers carried out early in the Biden administration. Not only did we withdraw our troops, but we were able to get out perhaps 100,000 others. It was a difficult maneuver accomplished, but not without casualties.

What did we get under the Trump administration? Nothing, except he was able to sign a surrender agreement toward the end of his administration that he could have signed at the beginning of his administration.

This resolution is entirely appropriate if you change one thing: Condemn not that list of people to which they added Harris at the end; condemn one man, Donald J. Trump.

During his Presidency, 63 Americans died in Afghanistan, 57 of them returned to dignified return ceremonies that Donald Trump was too busy to attend. He was busy golfing instead.

During his Presidency, his golf handicap did not suffer, but 57 American widows and fathers and mothers and families suffered as they saw the coffins brought back to America and a President too busy to be there.

What did we accomplish for the $200 billion that Donald Trump spent for the 63 who died? We signed a surrender document.

Now, I know they will say there are all kinds of wonderful things in the document. It is nothing but meaningless promises with no enforcement provisions, but don't take my word for it.

Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, Trump's National Security Advisor said, our Secretary of State, Mr. Pompeo, signed a surrender agreement with the Taliban.

Why surrender after you lose the 63 lives? Why not surrender in 2017? That is because withdrawals are difficult; surrender documents easier. Trump signed the surrender document and then left it to his successor to accomplish the withdrawal.

So we are told, oh, well, Donald Trump somehow would have enforced these meaningless conditions all without enforcement provisions. That is not what he would have done.

What does John Bolton, Donald Trump's other National Security Advisor, say. He said, had Donald Trump been reelected, he would have been doing the same thing on the question of withdrawal from Afghanistan.

But don't trust his staff. What did Donald Trump say? Donald Trump said in October of 2020, after the 5,000 Taliban fighters had been released because of Donald Trump's decision, he said, without any of the conditions having been met, that he would have all those troops home by Christmas 2020.

Those conditions were meaningless. They were meaningless to Donald Trump. They were meaningless to his National Security Advisor. They had no enforcement provisions in them.

Why did we stay in Afghanistan past 2017? So that Donald Trump didn't have to accomplish the withdrawal that was so difficult and for which he produced no plan.

We lost $200 billion, we lost 63 lives, we sent over $10 billion worth of our equipment that was spread all over Afghanistan with no prospect of recovering it, knowing that the Taliban would get it. We did all that during the Trump administration.

Now, we are having a partisan resolution as to who is at fault? The man who keeps our troops there, has 63 casualties, spends $200 billion, signs a surrender agreement, announces he is not going to enforce the provisions, and now we have this.

The Speaker pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.

At least Mr. Trump was able to golf and didn't have to go to the return ceremonies.

I would say that once you force the release of 5,000 Taliban fighters, it is very difficult to say things are condition-based because at that point, the Taliban has those 5,000 fighters and is able to inflict hundreds and hundreds of casualties on our forces unless they withdraw.

This was not a condition-based document. It was, in the words of General McMaster, a surrender, and the surrender was in the fourth year of the Trump administration.

Mr. Speaker, 63 of our finest died. Let us have a resolution condemning the one man who should be condemned: Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Speaker, some say that we should have left Americans there for this or that reason or the Taliban are doing this or the Taliban are doing that.

They are saying that Biden should have left those Americans there to die at the hands of the 5,000 Taliban fighters that Donald Trump had released.

How many hundreds would have died if they had stayed there? I don't know. Once you put 5,000 fighting Taliban into Kabul, I think at that point, it is hard to insist on conditions.