FEINGOLD CALLS ON LEVIN, JACK REED TO DROP OPPOSITION TO FEINGOLD-REID

[kpete]

FEINGOLD CALLS ON LEVIN, JACK REED TO DROP OPPOSITION TO FEINGOLD-REID
Call Follows Levin, Jack Reed Switch on Feingold Binding Timeline
June 21, 2007

Washington DC – Following the switch of Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Jack Reed (D-RI) to support a binding timeline for ending the Iraq War, which U.S. Senator Russ Feingold first proposed in 2005, Feingold called on Senate Democrats Levin and Jack Reed to drop their opposition to the Feingold-Reid plan to safely redeploy U.S. troops from Iraq. The call came after an opinion-editorial by Levin, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, ran in The Washington Post announcing that he and Jack Reed would introduce an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill that mirrored the Feingold-Reid proposal to begin redeploying U.S. troops from Iraq in 120 days, with all U.S. troops, with three narrow exceptions, being out of the country by April 2008.

In the opinion piece, Levin mischaracterized the effort led by Feingold and Majority Leader Harry Reid as somehow cutting off funding for U.S. troops. In fact, the Feingold-Reid bill would not end funding for the ongoing military mission in Iraq until U.S. troops had been safely redeployed out of harm’s way.

“I’m pleased that Senator Levin and Senator Jack Reed have finally come to the conclusion that a timetable for redeployment with a hard deadline is what we need to safely redeploy our troops from Iraq,” Feingold said. “But I’m disappointed that Senator Levin chose to announce his shift by disingenuously suggesting that the Feingold-Reid plan would somehow cut funding for troops in harm’s way. Senator Levin knows full well that the plan I introduced with Majority Leader Harry Reid, and which was supported by a majority of Senate Democrats, would end funding for the war in Iraq only after our brave troops have been safely redeployed out of Iraq. It is time for Senator Levin and Senator Jack Reed to drop their opposition to the Feingold-Reid plan to safely redeploy our troops by March 31, 2008, and then end funding for the mistake in Iraq.”

Senator Levin and Senator Jack Reed previously had been critical of timetables culminating in a firm end date as a way to bring our military involvement in Iraq to an end. Despite Levin's current criticism of efforts to use Congress's power of the purse to end the war, Levin voted for a similar effort with regard to Somalia in 1993. In October 1993, Levin joined 75 other Senators in voting for an amendment to require redeployment of U.S. troops from Somalia by setting a deadline after which funding for the military mission there was terminated. The amendment was passed into law and U.S. troops were redeployed from Somalia by the deadline.

http://feingold.senate.gov/~feingold/releases/07/06/20070621.html