Chairman Murtha to Bush: Sign the Iraq Accountability Act

Press Release Thursday 26 April 2007

Washington, D.C. - Congressman John P. Murtha, Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, issued the following statement Wednesday on the House passage of the Iraq Accountability Act conference report:

"For over four years, the President has been waging a war without end and a war without accountability and oversight. No longer will this Congress and the American People continue to give the President a blank check in order to continue a failed policy.

"Accountability is desperately needed, and this bill is called the Iraq Accountability Act for a good reason. It requires accountability on the part of the Iraqi Government to solve its own civil war. It calls for the President to be accountable for our military readiness and the welfare of our troops and to begin a responsible redeployment of our forces from Iraq.

"The Iraq Accountability Act provides four billion dollars more than the President requested for the military. This includes additional funding to address training and equipment shortfalls, additional funding for defense health care, and additional funding for PTSD counseling and Traumatic Brain Injury research.

"If the President vetoes the Iraq Accountability Act, he is denying our troops the resources that they need; he is denying our veterans the medical care they deserve; and he is denying the American People a new direction for Iraq. I strongly urge the President, whose own Generals have said that this war cannot be won militarily, to listen to the American People and sign the Iraq Accountability Act."