Christopher Shays: “I consider this an extraordinarily important moment. And, Chairman Skelton, I just want to share my tremendous respect…”

“I consider this an extraordinarily important moment. And, Chairman Skelton, I just want to share my tremendous respect for you in marshalling out a bipartisan beginning to something that can lead to more. That is what I think we all think that this is the beginning. So the Tanner-English-Abercrombie bill, congratulations to all three of you, becoming the Abercrombie-Turner bill in committee. It is a bipartisan effort that says we can agree on something and build on the little and then have it be more significant. It makes sense to ask the Secretary of Defense to submit a plan to Congress that tells us specifically how they intend to fight this war and the factors involved in their anticipation of what can happen in the future. It makes sense to let them have 60 days to do this, because they already know right now what they intend to do, and it should not be all that difficult to describe it and then explain it to Congress. It makes sense for every 3 months, every 90 days, for this plan to be updated and for individuals in Congress to understand whether we are ahead of schedule or behind schedule. We went into Iraq on a bipartisan basis, two-thirds of the House, including Mr. Skelton and Mr. Lantos, who lead the two most important committees dealing with this issue; and the Senate, three-quarters of the Senate voted to go into Iraq. We need to leave Iraq on a bipartisan basis.”