74th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2007 Regular Session
NOTE: Matter within { + braces and plus signs + } in an
amended section is new. Matter within { - braces and minus
signs - } is existing law to be omitted. New sections are within
{ + braces and plus signs + } .
LC 3648
A-Engrossed
House Joint Memorial 9
Ordered by the House March 13
Including House Amendments dated March 13
Sponsored by Representatives SHIELDS, HOLVEY, ROSENBAUM, Senator
GORDLY; Representatives BARNHART, BONAMICI, BOONE, BUCKLEY,
CANNON, CLEM, COWAN, DINGFELDER, D EDWARDS, GALIZIO, GELSER,
GREENLICK, HUNT, KOMP, KOTEK, MACPHERSON, MERKLEY, NATHANSON,
READ, RILEY, ROBLAN, TOMEI, WITT, Senators MONROE, WALKER
SUMMARY
The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the
measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject to
consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor's
brief statement of the essential features of the measure.
Urges President of United States not to increase numbers of
troops in Iraq. Calls on Congress to pass legislation
{ - prohibiting - } { + that limits + } President from
increasing numbers of troops without Congressional approval.
Calls on President and Congress to withdraw troops from Iraq and
redeploy troops not later than { - August 1, 2007 - } { +
first quarter of fiscal year 2008 + }.
JOINT MEMORIAL
To the President of the United States and the Senate and the
House of Representatives of the United States of America, in
Congress assembled:
We, your memorialists, the Seventy-fourth Legislative Assembly
of the State of Oregon, in legislative session assembled,
respectfully represent as follows:
Whereas hundreds of thousands of members of the Armed Forces of
the United States, including those in the National Guard and
Reserves, have served with honor and distinction during our
nation's involvement in Iraq; and
Whereas the Seventy-fourth Legislative Assembly supports the
men and women deployed in Iraq and honors the memory of those who
have lost their lives in service to our state and country; and
Whereas our nation's involvement in Iraq has cost the lives of
more than 3,100 U.S. service members, of whom 79 are Oregonians,
and has inflicted combat wounds and injuries, psychic trauma and
other disabilities on more than 52,000 others; and
Whereas our nation's involvement in Iraq has already caused
Oregonians and those in other states to suffer disrupted family
lives, financial hardships for individuals, families and
businesses, interrupted careers and damage to the fabric of civic
life in our communities; and
Whereas Congress has appropriated more than $500 billion to
date to fund military operations and reconstruction in Iraq,
money that could have funded desperately needed education, health
care, housing, nutrition and other social services in communities
in the United States; and
Whereas under our republican form of government, Oregon shares
responsibility for $12 billion in joint programs with the federal
government at a time when the administration is cutting the
federal commitment to education, transportation, human services,
veterans' programs and aid to the most vulnerable citizens in
this country; and
Whereas the military activities in Iraq have severely strained
the capacities of the Armed Forces of the United States, the
National Guard and the Reserves; and
Whereas the Oregon National Guard has deployed more than 5,300
service members, with more than 900 citizen soldiers seeking
mental health care in local communities during a time of
shrinking federal services; and
Whereas the Oregon National Guard's equipment readiness has
dropped below 40 percent, with a shortage of more than 300 trucks
critically required to respond to state disasters involving life
and limb; and
Whereas the President of the United States has proposed an
escalation in the number of United States troops deployed in
Iraq; and
Whereas the additional brigades proposed for deployment to Iraq
will be short of personal equipment, enhanced armor protection
kits for vehicles and equipment critical to force protection of
service members; and
Whereas the proposed escalation in the number of troops
committed to Iraq will extend tours of duty for Oregon National
Guard members and members of the National Guard in other states,
thereby adding to the costs that individuals and communities in
Oregon and other states have already incurred; and
Whereas the vast majority of Americans do not support
increasing the number of troops in Iraq; and
Whereas most military experts oppose escalation in Iraq and
congressional testimony indicates that even the commanding
general in Iraq has opposed this strategy; and
Whereas legal experts have recognized that Congress has broad
authority to limit expansion of United States military
commitments and force redeployment of United States armed forces
by exercising the power of the purse granted to Congress in the
United States Constitution; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of
Oregon:
That we, the Seventy-fourth Legislative Assembly, on behalf of
the citizens of Oregon, urge the President to refrain from
escalating United States involvement in Iraq at a time when the
Iraq Study Group, leading military and diplomatic officials and
allies around the world are calling for the United States to
reduce the number of troops in Iraq and to withdraw from
operations; and be it further
Resolved, That we, the Seventy-fourth Legislative Assembly,
call on Congress to oppose this announced increase in the number
of troops deployed in Iraq, and to pass legislation that limits
the President from spending more taxpayer dollars on such an
escalation until such time as the President obtains Congressional
approval for the escalation; and be it further
Resolved, That we, the Seventy-fourth Legislative Assembly,
urge the President, at a minimum, to obtain explicit approval
from Congress before sending more American troops to Iraq; and be
it further
Resolved, That we, the Seventy-fourth Legislative Assembly,
call on Congress and the President to announce an expedient plan
for the redeployment of the Armed Forces of the United States
from Iraq, to expand advisory assistance to the elected
government of Iraq and commence direct regional diplomacy as the
congressionally approved Iraq Study Group recommends, to begin
handing over military operations for the security of Iraq to the
government of Iraq and to begin withdrawing United States forces
from Iraq and redeploying those forces as soon as possible, but
not later than the first quarter of fiscal year 2008; and be it
further
Resolved, That a copy of this memorial shall be sent to the
President of the United States, to the Senate Majority Leader, to
the Speaker of the House of Representatives and to each member of
the Oregon Congressional Delegation.
----------