On the recordJuly 7, 2011
I rise with the assistance of my good friends, Tom McClintock of California, Lynn Woolsey of California, and Barbara Lee of California. It is my Libyan amendment, again, which would prevent funds appropriated in this act from being used to deploy any type of ground troop presence for the purpose of pursuing military operations on Libyan territory. This amendment would simply codify the policy endorsed by President Obama and the international community and thereby ensure that our involvement in Libya remains limited in scope. An identical amendment passed this House on May 26 by a vote of 416-5 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. It's also the intent of this amendment, as it was in my earlier amendment, that funds would be allowed to be used to rescue members of the Armed Forces participating in the NATO no-fly zone operation. The American people, obviously many of them, have grown weary of the open-ended military conflicts that place our troops in harm's way and add billions to our national debt. We simply cannot afford another Afghanistan or Iraq. And so the time has come for Congress to once again exercise its constitutional authority to place boundaries on the use of our military forces overseas and clearly state that this conflict in Libya will not escalate into an expensive occupation that would strain our resources and harm our national security interests.
