I have been to Iraq and Afghanistan and visited with our troops there. They do an amazing job given their tremendously difficult mission.

As I said when the House originally voted on this bill earlier this month, I support the President's goals of defeating al Qaeda and reducing the threat of global terrorism. However, as we enter our ninth year of this war, our brave troops and their families are being strained by multiple redeployments. The cost of the war has now exceeded $1 trillion dollars, with billions of dollars more that will be needed to continue our current strategy in the region. With an investment of people and resources of this magnitude, I feel obligated to continue to call on the President to provide Congress and the American people with a firm plan and timeline for troop withdrawal, including a set date when U.S. forces will be completely out of Afghanistan.

Just like the Iraq War, I believe that it is of the utmost importance that we finalize a responsible plan to end our time in Afghanistan. Corruption is rampant in Afghanistan and I will continue to oppose these types of funding measures in the absence of a plan to bring our troops home.

I also remain deeply concerned about the ongoing use of supplemental appropriation bills since they allow Congress to circumvent all budget rules. That means every dollar in this bill is added directly to our ballooning debt at a time our economy is struggling. We need to get our fiscal house in order if we are ever going to be able to tackle domestic priorities like improving our economy.