Thad Cochran: “this is an amendment to the committee substitute which is now at the desk. The amendment will strike part of section…”

“this is an amendment to the committee substitute which is now at the desk. The amendment will strike part of section 1315 of the bill titled ``Revision of United States Policy on Iraq.'' The majority of section 1315 of this act is a restatement of S.J. Res. 9, the United States Policy in Iraq Resolution of 2007. Two weeks ago, the Senate voted against adopting S.J. Res. 9 by a vote of 50 to 48. Section 1315 calls for a prompt transition of the mission in Iraq to a limited mission; a phased redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq within 120 days of enactment of this act; a goal of redeployment of all U.S. combat forces from Iraq by March 31, 2008, except for a limited number essential for protecting U.S. and coalition personnel and infrastructure, training, and equipping Iraqi forces, and conducting targeted counterterrorism operations. Section 1315 also calls for a classified campaign plan for Iraq, including benchmarks and projected redeployment dates of U.S. forces from Iraq. Finally, it also includes an expression of the sense of Congress concerning benchmarks for the Government of Iraq, along with a reporting requirement by the commander, multinational forces, Iraq, which is currently General Petraeus, to detail the progress being made by the Iraqi Government on the benchmarks contained in this section. This amendment does not remove the sense-of-the-Congress provision that is important to a number of Senators.…”