Peter Deutsch: “Mr. Chairman, yesterday eight of the Republican Members in the United States Senate voted not to have the $20 billion…”

“Mr. Chairman, yesterday eight of the Republican Members in the United States Senate voted not to have the $20 billion grant that is in our bill as a grant. And I have had the opportunity to listen to part of that debate. That debate was similar to some of the things that I mentioned on this floor in the substance of our debate but was not able to convince enough of our colleagues. This amendment is an attempt to do that and give people a second chance. The question is why should we give a grant to construction in Iraq? And I think we need to focus on this very specifically, why we should not, and why eight Republican colleagues in the Senate, after intense lobbying by the President, refused to do that. I think there is a very simple reason for it, and I think we need to focus on that reason. Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world. Trillions, not billions anymore, nor hundreds of billions, but trillions of dollars. It is not a relatively large country. Less than 30 million people. They have a natural resource to build themselves. But even more significantly than their natural resources, during the years of Saddam Hussein, even today with American troops in Iraq, and, clearly, once we leave, by all indications Iraq would be part of OPEC.”