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˜ Ben Nelson
Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson delivered a speech on the Senate floor May 13 concerning the need for measures of progress, or benchmarks, and reports to Congress in the Fiscal 2009 Supplemental for Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Pandemic Flu.
Today, the Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to markup the legislation. Nelson is a member of the Senate Appropriations and Armed Services committees.
A recording of the floor speech can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrJt63dk4kE
Below is the text of the speech:
Mister President,
I rise to discuss the Administration’s supplemental funding request for the ongoing challenges in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Administration is putting in place a new strategy for that region and it comes at a crucial time: U.S. diplomats, military service members and humanitarian groups—and our coalition partners--have worked to battle terrorists and establish more stability in that region since the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
Yet, today Al Qaeda and the Taliban, along with other extremist allies, remain a destabilizing and dangerous force. And across the region there’s too much violence, too much social and economic turmoil, and too little opportunity in the lives of the Afghan and Pakistani people.
The Administration’s strategy is undergoing modifications as we speak. I support the move this week by Defense Secretary Gates to select a new U.S. military commander for Afghanistan.In my view it is vitally important we get both the evolving strategy right and that we have the right way to assess the strategy going forward.
Since early this year, I have pressed Administration and military officials on the issue of developing progress measures for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and I’ve been pleased to hear support. We’ve heard the administration is developing standards and measures to evaluate its strategy for the region, at least internally. We need to go further.
My purpose is straightforward. It is an outgrowth of bipartisan work I undertook several years ago during the war in Iraq. I was troubled because many people seemed to be looking at the same facts during several seasons of terrible violence. But one group concluded that we were losing, while another determined we were winning.
In response, I helped draft bipartisan legislation with Senators John Warner, Susan Collins and Carl Levin that Congress approved and President Bush signed into law. We established 18 benchmarks -- or measurements -- of economic, military and diplomatic efforts in Iraq. The benchmarks helped Congress and the American people gain a better understanding of our successes and challenges in Iraq. They helped play down a partisan debate over whether we were winning or losing.
One important point I’d like to make: we didn’t dictate what the benchmarks should be. They were suggested by the Administration, military leaders and the Iraqi government.
We did require the Administration report to Congress and in my view the reporting provided valuable and objective information to the American people about how things were really going in Iraq--from efforts to reduce insurgent attacks, to the Iraqi government working out distribution of oil royalties.
Just as I didn’t support tying the previous Administration’s hands in Iraq by setting arbitrary timelines for troop withdrawal or dictating specific measures of progress, I don’t support that approach with this Administration either. Still, I will continue working with the Administration to bring specific progress measures -- or benchmarks -- out into the public eye.
Last week, I wrote a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Inouye and Ranking Member Cochran urging them to include a requirement for progress measures in the Fiscal Year 2009 supplemental appropriations bill.
I was pleased to learn today that the committee mark of the supplemental bill we’re scheduled to take up tomorrow includes the two elements I’ve sought.
I understand that the bill will require the President to submit an initial report to Congress this year and subsequent reports. They are to assess whether the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan are doing enough to warrant continuing the President’s new strategy. In short, are they doing their part? The bill also outlines general areas to measure success of that strategy, or what I have called benchmarks.
Timely and regular status reports will enable the American people to gain an understanding of whether the U.S. strategy is working, or should be altered. I look forward to the Administration defining more clearly the progress measures to evaluate that strategy, and to them becoming public.
We all want the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and Pakistan to succeed. The more we know about whether we are achieving goals tied to the mission the more Congress, and the American public, will be able to support our military, economic and diplomatic efforts going forward.
For too long, our standards to measure success in Iraq were vaguely defined. That led to partisan disputes over U.S. strategy and uncertainty in the minds of the American public. The controversies didn’t provide American service members fighting the war with the unity of purpose and support they deserved.
Now in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the American people should receive a clear explanation of the mission, an objective set of measures by which to evaluate it going forward and regular status reports on the mission’s progress.
As the federal government asks for further sacrifice from our citizens, and as we are forced to continue putting our men and women in uniform in harm’s way, Congress must provide all available tools to achieve success. We should provide nothing less.
I yield the floor.
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