Byron Dorgan: “The amendment directs the Coalition Provisional Authority, in cooperation with the Governing Council of Iraq, to create…”

“The amendment directs the Coalition Provisional Authority, in cooperation with the Governing Council of Iraq, to create an Iraq Reconstruction Finance Authority. The purpose of the Iraq Reconstruction Finance Authority shall be to securitize future production of Iraqi oil, in order to finance the reconstruction of Iraq. In short, this amendment says that the reconstruction of Iraq should involve the Iraqi people, using Iraqi oil to reconstruct their country and that it should not be the American taxpayers reconstructing Iraq. Surely, if this administration is ready to recognize the Iraqi Governing Council as the sovereign of the state of Iraq, that body should have the ability to use future revenues from the sale of Iraqi oil, to reconstruct their own country. The fact is that, for months, this administration told us that Iraq's oil would allow the Iraqi people to finance their own reconstruction.”