WASHINGTON, March 22 (UPI) -- A prominent GOP congressman is challenging conditions attached to an emergency bill funding U.S. military operations in Iraq.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, said he was worried about conditions attached to the Fiscal Year 2007 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill.
"I have serious concerns about H.R. 1591, both with respect to the content of the bill as well as with the process by which this bill has come before this committee," Hunter said. "This legislation is rife with policy and legislative language. It makes judgments with respect to the war in Iraq that have not been vetted by the Armed Services Committee; these are judgments that I know will be detrimental to our national security and injurious to our military."
Hunter asked "how a 15-day certification requirement would prevent the commander in chief from immediately sending urgently needed reinforcements into Iraq" and "how it would withhold funding for the Iraqi Security Forces until political conditions are met, when it is the ISF that it is the linchpin for creating the security conditions that will allow for political change."
Hunter said he was "offering an amendment that strikes the legislative language in the bill that I believe profoundly misreads the situation in Iraq, interferes with the chain of command, and violates the constitutional power given to the president as the commander in chief."
"I urge this committee to recognize the gravity of the words in the bill, and to provide the members of the House ... the courtesy of offering their input on legislation that will have a profound -- and I fear -- grave-impact on our Armed Forces and the national security of this country," he said.
