Christopher Shays: “Mr. Speaker, this is a closed rule. It is a continuation of closed rules on an issue that should be a very open. We went…”

“Mr. Speaker, this is a closed rule. It is a continuation of closed rules on an issue that should be a very open. We went into Iraq on a bipartisan basis; that cannot be denied. Two-thirds of the House voted to go into Iraq, three-quarters of the Senate voted to go into Iraq. The Senate is allowing open debate on the issue of Iraq. There was the Webb-Hagel amendment, which is basically this underlying bill. There was the Hagel-Levin amendment, which talked about troops not being sent in for more than 12 months if they are in the Army and 7 months if they are in the Marines. That was an amendment I would have liked to have introduced to this bill. Why couldn't we have had a debate on it? If it doesn't make sense, and there would have been a number on my side of the aisle who would have voted against it, it would have defeated it. But we would have started to have some dialogue about the condition of our troops. That would be a healthy thing to have. But the most important amendment that was presented was the effort by Mr. Wolf to have support for the Iraq Study Group.”