ICYMI: ON HOUSE FLOOR, CONGRESSMAN PAT RYAN SPEAKS OUT AGAINST “RECKLESS, COSTLY” WAR IN IRAN, REFUSES TO GIVE PETE HEGSETH A $1.5 TRILLION BLANK CHECK
On House Floor, Congressman Pat Ryan Speaks Out Against “Reckless, Costly” War in Iran, Refuses to Give Pete Hegseth a $1.5 Trillion Blank Check
Congressman Ryan – an Iraq war combat veteran and the first West Point graduate to represent the Academy in Congress – spoke on the House floor in opposition to giving Trump and Hegseth’s Pentagon a $1.5T blank check to continue a war that has killed 18 servicemembers, injured hundreds more, and cost the American people billions of dollars
Ryan’s remarks follow an escalation in fighting – despite the President’s April claim of “complete total victory” – as well as the bipartisan House passage of a War Powers Resolution to immediately end the war in Iran
Ryan’s full remarks on the House floor can be viewed here
WASHINGTON, DC – Last night, Congressman Pat Ryan – a member of the House Armed Services Committee, Iraq War veteran, and the first West Point graduate to represent the Academy in Congress – spoke on the House floor demanding an end to the war in Iran. Ryan railed against his Republican colleagues for failing to consider his No Funds for Iran War Act, even after the House passed a bipartisan War Powers Resolution last month, and against Hegseth’s topline funding request of $1.5 trillion.
His remarks follow the resumption of U.S. operations in Iran – despite President Trump’s April claim of “complete and total victory” – and as the casualties continue to grow, with 18 servicemembers killed in action and hundreds more wounded.
“It's personal to me. Having served twenty-seven months in combat in Iraq. Watching us double down on a losing strategy, year after year, while my friends and fellow soldiers – many of whose names are on this memorial bracelet I wear – fought and died. It's personal to the now eighteen families who lost their loved ones in this reckless war in Iran — sons, daughters, husbands, wives, somebody's whole world. It’s personal to the hundreds more wounded, many carrying injuries that will last their entire lives from this war,” said Ryan.
“And it's personal to the American people,” Ryan continued. “People who are working hard, doing everything that they are asked, watching the cost of their gas, their groceries, their utility bills skyrocket. Watching the President, watching Hegseth spend over $100 billion of their hard-earned taxpayer dollars while they continue to flail and fail.”
Ryan said that rather than listen to the American people struggling under his economy, especially under rising gas prices due to the war with Iran, Trump is continuing to double down: “This is a straight up betrayal. From a President, by the way, who promised to end wars, not start wars. A President who never spent a single day in uniform, but is more than willing to send other people’s kids to fight in his wars. A President who is now blatantly disregarding the widely held will of the American people – and the bipartisan view of this Congress, as recognized in the successful passage of a War Powers Resolution – by escalating this war rather than winding it down.”
“We have to stop repeating the mistakes of the forever wars that my generation fought and served in,” Ryan continued. “That’s why I’ve been fighting to include my “No Funds for Iran War Act” in this NDAA – to make sure we don’t spend a single penny more on this reckless forever war in the Middle East. To make sure we’re investing here at home. To lower housing costs. Lower grocery costs. Lower utility costs. Lower healthcare costs.”
“That's what the American people want. That is what I'm fighting for,” Ryan concluded.
Ryan’s full remarks on the House floor can be viewed here.
Congressman Ryan has been a consistent opponent of unconstitutional action against Iran, and has repeatedly cosponsored and voted in favor of War Powers Resolutions, citing both the monetary and human costs of continuing down an escalatory path without a long-term plan or end goal. Last month, Ryan introduced legislation to prohibit the use of additional taxpayer funds for military action against Iran in the absence of an Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) or official declaration of war from Congress. Ryan questioned Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth about the Iranian drone strike on U.S. troops at Port Shuaiba, which killed six soldiers and wounded 30 others on March 1. A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll found that 61 percent of Americans believe using military force against Iran was a mistake, making Trump’s war as unpopular among Americans as the Iraq War during the peak of violence in 2006 and the Vietnam War in the early 1970s.
Congressman Ryan is a U.S. Army veteran, served two combat tours in Iraq, and is the first West Point graduate to represent the Academy in the U.S. House of Representatives. Amid recent threats to veterans’ benefits, national security concerns, and rising threats worldwide, Congressman Ryan led his fellow veterans in Congress to create the Democratic Veterans Caucus. He sits on the House Armed Services Committee and has led extensive legislation to deliver relief for veterans, servicemembers, and military families.
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