Sam Johnson to Democrats: Pass a clean troop funding bill

May 15, 2008

Today U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson (3rd Dist.-Texas) urged his colleagues to pass a clean troop funding bill before the Pentagon starts handing out pink slips.

“The Democrats in Congress just signaled to the troops on the ground that they want you out of Iraq now and they don’t want to give you money to pay for you now and they don’t want to give you money for you to leave. It’s just a shame,” declared Johnson a 29-year Air Force veteran.

“Congress needs to support our troops and give them the wherewithal to win. It’s time for Congress to pass a clean troop funding bill,” continued Johnson.

The underlying legislation was supposed to allocate money to the troops serving in harm’s way. The amendment to send money to the troops on the front lines did not garner enough Democrat “yea” votes to pass. In a surprise move to the Democrats, a majority of Republicans voted “present.” The last minute maneuver prevented the Democrats from using Republicans to pass a bill that uses the troops as political pawns to balloon spending and mandate a troop withdrawal. Democrats also passed an amendment to the emergency spending proposal to pull the troops out of Iraq within 30 days of the bill becoming law.

Recently, top Pentagon officials signaled that if a troop funding bill does not pass both chambers of Congress before the Memorial Day recess, then soldiers will stop receiving money after June 15th. Congress could adjourn next week without passing a troop funding bill.

The Democrats loaded up the so-called troop spending measure with non-related items, such as unemployment insurance, foreign aid, tax hikes and flood protection for New Orleans, irking the Republicans who favored a stand-alone troop funding bill.

“Playing pork-barrel politics with money for the troops is immoral and unethical,” said Johnson.

Johnson represents portions of Dallas and Collin Counties.

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