[Pages H5792-H5800]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

ENSURING ACCOUNTABILITY FOR KEY OFFICIALS IN THE BIDEN-HARRIS
ADMINISTRATION RESPONSIBLE FOR DECISIONMAKING AND EXECUTION FAILURES
THROUGHOUT THE WITHDRAWAL FROM AFGHANISTAN

Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1486, I call up
the resolution (H. Res. 1469) ensuring accountability for key officials
in the Biden-Harris administration responsible for decisionmaking and
execution failures throughout the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and ask
for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bost). Pursuant to House Resolution
1486, the resolution is considered read.
The text of the resolution is as follows:

H. Res. 1469

Whereas, throughout the Biden-Harris administration, key
White House, National Security Council, Department of State,
and Department of Defense officials prioritized the politics
and optics of the withdrawal from Afghanistan over the
security of United States personnel and civilians on the
ground and failed to plan for foreseeable contingencies,
causing a chaotic, precipitous withdrawal that resulted in
the death of 13 servicemembers and the wounding of 45
servicemembers in the Abbey Gate terrorist attack on August
26, 2021;
Whereas, in 2020, the Trump administration negotiated a
conditional plan to withdraw from Afghanistan called ``The
Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan'', commonly known
as the Doha Agreement, which required the Taliban to cease
terrorist activities, renounce linkages with al Qaeda, reduce
violence, establish a ceasefire, and participate in Afghan-
to-Afghan negotiations with the Government of Afghanistan;
Whereas the Biden-Harris administration was determined to
withdraw from Afghanistan regardless of the Doha Agreement
and the costs of withdrawal;
Whereas, in 2021, under the Biden-Harris administration,
Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay
Khalilzad, baselessly asserted the Taliban would honor their
commitments and respect basic human rights;
Whereas, in 2021, President Biden selected National
Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan to conduct an interagency
review of the policy of the United States toward Afghanistan,
including the Taliban's compliance with the Doha Agreement;
Whereas the review process led by National Security Advisor
Sullivan, Deputy National Security Advisor Jonathan Finer,
and Homeland Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall
completely disregarded the failure of the Taliban to comply
with the Doha Agreement, did not seek input from key
government officials, and blatantly ignored warnings from
senior national security experts and allies of the United
States that a complete withdrawal of troops would cause a
total unraveling and collapse of the Government of
Aghanistan;
Whereas President Biden, supported by Vice President
Harris, issued a ``go-to-zero order'' without any regard for
the safety of Americans and without making appropriate plans
for noncombatant evacuation operations;
Whereas the Department of State's leadership responsible
for the safety of embassy personnel and civilian evacuation
plans included Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Deputy
Secretary of State Brian McKeon, and Counselor for the
Department of State Derek Chollet;
Whereas, during the military withdrawal from April to July
2021, Secretary of State Blinken, Ambassador Ross Wilson,
other Department of State officials, and the National
Security Council willfully disregarded warnings of the
Taliban's imminent takeover in Afghanistan and instead
increased the footprint of Embassy Kabul rather than plan for
a noncombatant evacuation operation;
Whereas, in early August 2021, as the Taliban made gains
across Afghanistan, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Under
Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl, and other senior
officials purportedly advised that positioning United States
military forces to assist with a noncombatant evacuation
operation was not immediately necessary, contrary to urgent
warnings from United States military personnel on the ground;
Whereas Secretary of State Blinken and his State Department
did not call for a noncombatant evacuation operation until
the Taliban began marching into Kabul on August 15, 2021;
Whereas Secretary of State Blinken and his State Department
had not made determinations about who would be eligible for

[[Page H5793]]

evacuation, and had not effectuated agreements with third
countries to serve as transit points prior to the
noncombatant evacuation operation;
Whereas the willful refusal to plan for a timely civilian
evacuation caused chaos in Kabul and an untenable security
situation at the Hamid Karzai International Airport;
Whereas, on August 26, 2021, the Biden-Harris
administration's chaotic, precipitous withdrawal, willful
refusal to properly plan for a noncombatant evacuation
operation, and decision to rely on the Taliban to run
checkpoints surrounding the airport resulted in a terrorist
attack by ISIS-K at Abbey Gate that killed 185 people,
including 13 United States servicemembers;
Whereas the suicide bomber at Abbey Gate was among
thousands of militants released by the Taliban from Afghan
prisons as they marched on Kabul;
Whereas, in August 2021, the Biden-Harris administration
left behind approximately 1,000 Americans;
Whereas the Biden-Harris administration left behind
$7,000,000,000 worth of United States weapons and up to
$57,000,000 in United States currency that could be used by
the Taliban and other terrorist regimes;
Whereas President Biden, Vice President Harris, National
Security Advisor Sullivan, White House Press Secretary Jen
Psaki, White House National Security Communications Advisor,
and Defense Department Spokesperson John Kirby, and the
Department of State Spokesperson Ned Price repeatedly and
materially misrepresented to the people of the United States
the state of affairs in Afghanistan and the withdrawal;
Whereas, since the Biden-Harris administration's
withdrawal, the Taliban has carried out brutal reprisal
killings of Afghan Government officials and individuals who
assisted the United States and our allies, and created a safe
haven for terrorist groups who seek to harm the United
States;
Whereas the Biden administration had been warned the
precipitous withdrawal would cause women's rights to ``go
back to the Stone Age'', and since the withdrawal, women's
rights have been rescinded and child marriages have
skyrocketed;
Whereas the Biden-Harris administration's catastrophic
withdrawal has emboldened our adversaries, and once again
made the United States vulnerable to terrorist attacks;
Whereas the Biden-Harris administration refuses any
accountability for the disastrous withdrawal; instead, Under
Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl said ``Americans should be
immensely proud'' and Press Secretary Psaki stated the
withdrawal was ``a success'';
Whereas Vice President Harris said she was the last person
in the room before President Biden made the final decision on
the withdrawal and was described by an advisor as being ``100
percent all in'' on the decision; and
Whereas our Nation's most senior leaders, including the
President and Vice President, failed in their
responsibilities on behalf of the people of the United States
and have not been held accountable for the death and
destruction their failures caused: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives condemns each
of the following individuals for their role in the Biden-
Harris administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan and
noncombatant evacuation operation, which led to the injury
and death of United States servicemembers, injury and death
of Afghan civilians, abandonment of American civilians and
our Afghan allies, and harm to the national security and
international stature of the United States:
(1) Joseph R. Biden, President of the United States.
(2) Kamala D. Harris, Vice President of the United States.
(3) Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor.
(4) Jonathan Finer, Assistant to the President and Deputy
National Security Advisor.
(5) Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Assistant to the President
for Homeland Security and Deputy National Security Advisor.
(6) John Kirby, White House National Security
Communications Advisor; former Spokesperson, the Department
of Defense.
(7) Jen Psaki, Former Press Secretary, White House.
(8) Antony Blinken, Secretary, the Department of State.
(9) Brian McKeon, Former Deputy Secretary of State for
Management and Resources, the Department of State.
(10) Ross Wilson, Ambassador and former Chief of Mission to
United States Embassy Kabul, Afghanistan, the Department of
State.
(11) Zalmay Khalilzad, Ambassador and former United States
Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, the
Department of State.
(12) Ned Price, Deputy to the United States Representative
to the United Nations and former Spokesperson, the Department
of State.
(13) Lloyd Austin, Secretary, the Department of Defense.
(14) Derek Chollet Chief of Staff to the Secretary, the
Department of Defense; Former Counselor, the Department of
State.
(15) Colin Kahl, Former Under Secretary of Defense for
Policy, the Department of Defense.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The resolution shall be debatable for 1
hour, equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority
member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, or their respective
designees.
The gentleman from Texas (Mr. McCaul) and the gentleman from New York
(Mr. Meeks) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. McCaul).

General Leave

Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to
include extraneous material on this measure.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, 3 years ago, the world witnessed one of the most
devastating foreign policy disasters in American history. The Biden-
Harris administration withdrew all U.S. forces from Afghanistan with no
plan, no care, and no remorse.
As a result, 13 brave U.S. servicemembers and over 170 Afghan
civilians were murdered, and 45 U.S. servicemembers and countless
others were injured.
Just this month National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby was
asked whether there had been any accountability for the
administration's deadly and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
He responded: ``We've all held ourselves accountable.''
That answer, Mr. Speaker, is detached from all reality.
Today, the administration touts that deadly withdrawal as a success,
and they have yet to hold a single person accountable for their role in
this tragedy. In fact, many of those responsible for this catastrophe
have actually been promoted.
If the administration refuses to hold itself accountable, then
Congress must.
On April 14, 2021, the President announced the Biden-Harris
administration would withdraw all troops from Afghanistan, no matter
the cost or the consequence. They ignored the Taliban's violations of
the Doha agreement. They ignored objections by our Nation's top
military and intelligence experts, and they ignored objections by our
NATO allies.
According to the administration's own admission, the Doha agreement
was immaterial to that decision.
Following President Biden's go-to-zero order, the Taliban captured
province after province in Afghanistan. Afghanistan's collapse was all
but set in stone.
Astoundingly, this administration did nothing to plan for an
evacuation. Instead, they denied threats to American interests,
American citizens, and our decades-long Afghan partners.
On August 15, 2021, after months of Taliban advances, Kabul fell. The
administration's utter failure to prepare became painfully clear.
President Biden claimed the very next day that his administration had
planned for all contingencies. Nothing could be further from the truth.
At every step, the administration prioritized the optics and the
politics of the withdrawal over the security of U.S. personnel and
diplomats on the ground.
To protect their partisan aims, they ignored the well-known terrorist
threats from ISIS-K and the Taliban to our servicemembers, diplomats,
citizens, and allies.
The Biden-Harris administration instead chose to treat the Taliban--
the very terrorists that we had been fighting for 20 years--as security
partners, for God's sake, security partners during the evacuation.
This administration created the very environment that allowed an
ISIS-K terrorist to pass through a Taliban checkpoint, because, Mr.
Speaker, we put the Taliban in charge of the checkpoint.
Mr. Speaker, guess who let the suicide bomber through?
It was the Taliban.
The result of that was the deadliest day for American troops in
Afghanistan since 2021.
On August 26, 2021, that terrorist detonated a suicide vest,
murdering 13 U.S. servicemembers and over 170 Afghan civilians, and
injuring 45 U.S.

[[Page H5794]]

servicemembers and countless civilians.
Rather than admit their failure, this administration continues to
this day to celebrate their deadly evacuation. Never once have they
said they are sorry to the Gold Star families.
It took the Speaker of the House at the Congressional Gold Medal
ceremony to say: I am sorry for what your government did to you.
Just yesterday, President Biden proclaimed to the world that his
withdrawal was ``the right decision.''
I believe that is shameful.
When I became chairman, I launched an investigation so that we, the
Congress, could work to ensure that what happened in Afghanistan never
happens again.
As everyone here knows, you cannot begin to fix a problem without
first admitting that there is a problem. That is what accountability is
all about.
My 353-page report on this investigation works to provide that
accountability. Today, we take the first step in fixing the problem by
holding accountable those leaders who were derelict in their duty and
are responsible for this disaster.
They are Joseph Biden, President of the United States; Kamala Harris,
Vice President of the United States; Jake Sullivan, National Security
Advisor; Jonathan Finer, Assistant to the President and Deputy National
Security Advisor; Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Assistant to the
President for Homeland Security and Deputy National Security Advisor;
John Kirby, National Security Council spokesperson and former Defense
Department Spokesperson; Jen Psaki, former White House Press Secretary;
Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State; Brian McKeon, former Deputy
Secretary of State; Ross Wilson, U.S. Ambassador and former Chief of
Mission to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul; Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. Ambassador
and former Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation; Ned
Price, Deputy to the U.S. Representative to the United Nations and
former State Department Spokesperson; Lloyd Austin, U.S. Secretary of
Defense; Derek Chollet, Chief of Staff to Secretary Austin and former
Counselor to Secretary Blinken; and, finally, Colin Kahl, former Under
Secretary of Defense for Policy.

{time} 1515

The American people, U.S. servicemembers, veterans, and, most
importantly, the Gold Star families, deserve this. They deserve
transparency, and they deserve, Mr. Speaker, accountability. This
measure is the first step toward that, and I urge my colleagues to
support it.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Committee on Armed Services,

House of Representatives,

Washington, DC, September 24, 2024.
Hon. Michael T. McCaul,
House Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman McCaul: I write concerning H. Res. 1469, a
resolution condemning the Biden-Harris Administration's
disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. As a result of your
having consulted with us on provisions within H. Res. 1469
that fall within the Rule X jurisdiction of the Committee on
Armed Services, I agree to forego any further consideration
of this resolution so that it may proceed expeditiously to
the House floor for consideration.
The Committee on Armed Services takes this action with our
mutual understanding that by foregoing consideration of H.
Res. 1469 at this time, we do not waive any jurisdiction over
subject matter contained in this or similar legislation and
that our committee will be appropriately consulted and
involved as this resolution or similar legislation moves
forward so that we may address any remaining issues in our
jurisdiction.
Finally, I ask that a copy of our exchange of letters on
this matter be included by House Committee on Foreign Affairs
in the Congressional Record during floor consideration, to
memorialize our understanding. Thank you for the cooperative
spirit in which you have worked regarding this matter and
others between our respective committees.
Sincerely,

Michael D. Rogers,

Chairman, House Committee
on Armed Services.
____

House of Representatives,

Committee on foreign affairs,

Washington, DC, September 24, 2024.
Hon. Mike Rogers,
Committee on Armed Services,
Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Rogers: Thank you for consulting with the
Foreign Affairs Committee and agreeing to be discharged from
further consideration of H. Res. 1469, a resolution
condemning the Biden-Harris Administration's disastrous
withdrawal from Afghanistan, so that the measure may proceed
expeditiously to the House floor.
I agree that your forgoing further action on this measure
does not in any way diminish or alter the jurisdiction of
your committee, or prejudice its jurisdictional prerogatives
on this measure or similar legislation in the future.
I will seek to place our letters on this bill into the
Congressional Record during floor consideration. I appreciate
your cooperation regarding this legislation and look forward
to continuing to work together as this measure moves through
the legislative process.
Michael T. McCaul,
Chairman.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this resolution, which is
clearly just another attempt by Republicans to politicize their
investigation. It was not a bipartisan investigation. It was their
investigation into the United States' withdrawal from Afghanistan. For
what purpose? Solely to attack the Biden administration in an election
year and deflect the scrutiny of their own partisan claims.
Mr. Speaker, we had a committee markup just yesterday. Why avoid
regular order? Well, I will tell my colleagues why. If this resolution
had gone through committee, we would have been able to go line by line
and address either their misleading or outright falsehoods that were
made throughout the text.
We could have made clear, for example, how Republicans cherry-picked
testimony to reinforce their own predetermined, meaning they made a
determination before it was concluded, narrative about the Biden
administration while omitting any facts showing that former President
Trump initiated the withdrawal; that President Trump's actions undercut
U.S. leverage in negotiating with the Taliban; and that President
Trump's order to withdraw more and more troops set it into an
irreversible motion.
The majority's investigation and this resolution, of course, is not
concerned about the facts. What it is really concerned about is the
politics.
Why do I say that? That is evidenced by the fact that Republicans
released their partisan, misleading report, a report into which, I
might say again, Democrats had no input and didn't even see until just
hours before Republicans made it public, so it was their secret.
It is evidenced by Republicans' rush yesterday to baselessly hold
Secretary Blinken in contempt, even though the Secretary of State, who
was with President Biden, engaging in high-level diplomacy with world
leaders at the U.N. yesterday, has stated time and time again that he
is willing to testify.
Why? What is the rush? What is the urgency? It is not to get answers.
It is not to get the facts. The withdrawal was completed more than 3
years ago. Why? The majority wanted to make a spectacle before the
November elections. It is clear.
Nothing underscores their partisan theater more than Republicans, get
this, naming Vice President Harris over 200 times in their report, and
we don't know when the majority added it or not, I believe it was at
the last second, and 5 times in the resolution. My colleagues on the
other side of the aisle put that in there, despite the fact she is
mentioned only three times in over 3,000 pages of transcript
interviews. She was mentioned three times.
Vice President Harris was only mentioned twice in the Republicans'
interim report in 2022. I wonder what changed. I wonder why, all of a
sudden, the majority wants to put her name in it more. Could it have
something to do with the elections that are coming up in less than 45
days?
This did not need to be a partisan exercise. No one has claimed on
our side of the aisle, or any party, that the withdrawal was perfect.
There are clear lessons to be learned.
The State Department even admitted it. The State Department did its
own investigation. However, facts are facts, and witnesses consistently
made it clear that the Biden administration developed a plan after the
Trump administration failed to do so.

[[Page H5795]]

I remind Members that the former President initiated this withdrawal
when he went from 14,000 troops, upon his taking office, down to 2,500
troops by the end of his term. Multiple witnesses told us that the
former President did not have a plan in place to evacuate our Afghan
allies or our American citizens, but my colleagues on the other side of
the aisle don't want to talk about that.
Witnesses also told us that the dynamic situation on the ground
changed dramatically when Afghan President Ghani fled the country,
leading to the collapse of the Afghan Government and the military.
I remind my colleagues that President Ghani was here in Washington,
D.C., in a meeting with leaders. I was there, and the Republican
leadership was there, where he had said that he and the Afghan
Government would stay and that they would be there to monitor things.
Just a week later, they fled.
Witnesses of the GOP investigation repeatedly told us that while the
situation in Kabul was chaotic, the administration's response was not.
Our military and diplomats adapted quickly to facilitate the largest
airlift in U.S. history to relocate over 120,000 people, and that is
why President Biden said it was a success and pulling out of
Afghanistan was the right thing to do.
Despite what my Republican colleagues say, our withdrawal did not
begin the moment that President Biden took office, though planning for
it did.
It was the Trump administration's flawed deal with the Taliban that
Republicans don't want to talk about. It is called the Doha deal. It is
the deal that initiated our withdrawal and forced the Afghan Government
to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners back into the battlefield, which the
Republicans don't want to talk about either. This fundamentally changed
the power dynamic in Afghanistan. That is not in their report. They
don't want to talk about that.
Testimony reaffirmed that Trump's troop drawdowns were not conditions
based, but that he even erratically ordered a full withdrawal in his
last days of office, a decision that the military leaders essentially
overruled. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle don't want to
talk about that.
Trump had also frozen the SIV program, leaving the Biden
administration with a backlog of more than 17,000 cases to start
addressing, and they did. That is not in the majority's report. The
majority doesn't want to talk about that either.
Republicans are trying desperately to clean up a candidate who
clearly has a flawed record, Trump's record, on this withdrawal, but
President Trump himself has bragged that the Biden administration
couldn't stop the process if they wanted to. In this case, President
Trump, a rarity, was accurate.

Witnesses said that if the withdrawal was reversed, then the only
condition in the Doha deal that the Taliban had honored, to stop firing
on U.S. troops, would be broken. We would be back at war, and we would
have had to send more troops back into Afghanistan.
The President had two options upon taking office: End America's 20-
year war in Afghanistan, or massively surge troops for an
undeterminable amount of time. As President Biden has said, yes, he
made the right decision not to send another generation of Americans to
spill blood in Afghanistan. That was the right decision.
Our country owes a deep debt of gratitude to the 2,461 Americans who
made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan, including the 13
servicemembers tragically killed in the ISIS-K attack at Abbey Gate.
They deserve honest oversight of our longest war, which spanned four
administrations. An honest oversight would look over all four, as we
thought on our side of the aisle, was the appropriate thing to do if we
really wanted to get the facts and make sure that we correct things
that took place over that long 20-year time.
This resolution and the report it affirms are not oversight or
accountability, they are really election season props to use for
political gain.
Thankfully, the nonpartisan Afghanistan War Commission will provide
that serious oversight that is necessary, and there is legislation that
Congress can pass now to move forward with something impartial and
something that will have real credibility. It is something that I
believe could really console all of the families of those who lost
their lives for our great country in Afghanistan.
We reported bipartisan legislation by Representative Titus to
authorize the coordinator for Afghan relocation efforts. I know
negotiations continue on legislation by Representative Crow to improve
how the State Department responds to crises. It is responsible
legislation.
The Afghan Adjustment Act and the Afghan Allies Protection Act, which
are longstanding, bipartisan proposals, would keep the faith with the
Afghans who fought and worked alongside us. If we are going to do these
kinds of reports, they should be bipartisan.
I deeply regret that this is one of the final bills we are likely to
take up before election. I don't think it is by accident. We are
getting out of here tomorrow. The last thing we are going to be doing
is this. I know Republican leadership wanted to make sure of that--
politics.
Even before we voted to keep our government open, this is what my
colleagues want to do. This is an unfounded, partisan attack. We should
be focused on and at least have the vote on the CR to keep this
government open. The American people deserve better.
Let's reject this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I will address some of the points. I can tell my good
friend from New York (Mr. Meeks) has some prosecutorial background,
like myself, and I commend him for his skillful arguments.
I will address the argument that this is all political. The timing of
our investigation and this report was not of my making. It was not my
timeline. It was deliberately delayed by this administration, I think,
in a plan to take it well beyond this election, well beyond this
Congress.

{time} 1530

Fortunately, we had it done in September, and we invited the
Secretary to testify about the report. He declined to show up, saying
he had no time for the Congress, not one day in September.
Secondly, they had nothing to do with this report. Every transcribed
interview had full participation by Members in the minority, Members on
the other side of the aisle. They were full participants.
I would have to say, with respect to the report itself, we have 1,812
citations with a very thorough, historic document. Their report is a
50-page memorandum that doesn't even cite to a single piece of the
20,000 pages the administration presented to us after a threat of
holding the Secretary in contempt.
The Dissent Channel and the after-action report were the testimonies
of the diplomats themselves on the ground. That is what is in our
report. That is not political. It is not opinion based, other than what
the generals were thinking on the ground and the diplomats were
thinking on the ground at the time of the fall.
What is despicable is that Ambassador Wilson abandoned his own Afghan
employees and left them to the mercy of the Taliban, and I am sure many
of them were executed, along with many of the diplomats in the Embassy.
There is just so much more that I could talk about, and I am sure we
will, but the fact is, I take pride in the work we did. I did it as a
Federal prosecutor would, along with my team, who is also a former
Federal prosecutor, methodically building our case.
We never threw advanced conclusions out. We never made judgment calls
in advance. We didn't do much with press on this. We built our case,
and all roads lead to the Secretary of State, Jake Sullivan, and the
National Security Council. I believe those are the facts.
Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman
from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson), the chairman of the Subcommittee on
Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia.
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the
resolution ensuring accountability in the Biden-Harris administration.
Sadly, as a student of history, the Biden-Harris administration's
failures

[[Page H5796]]

in Afghanistan, I believe, have been the most catastrophic ever in
American foreign policy and national security.
Thirteen Americans were murdered at Abbey Gate, and three Georgia
Army reservists were murdered on January 28 of this year, with dozens
of Georgia reservists also suffering permanent traumatic brain injury.
Americans were left behind. Afghan mothers gave up their babies over
the wall so that their children could live in freedom. Patriotic
Afghans fell from the planes as the Biden administration deserted the
people of Afghanistan.
Surrender in Afghanistan, with Afghanistan becoming a safe haven for
terrorists, has opened borders for every American family to be at risk
of mass murder as we see dictators who have the ability to now come
into our country and the potential of mass murder, as has been warned
by the FBI.
War criminal Putin has been encouraged, as we see dictators, to
conduct the mass murder in Ukraine. The Iranian puppets have
slaughtered innocent people in Israel.
The agreements reached in Doha were conditions based, achieved by
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. We had testimony before the Foreign
Affairs Committee by General Milley and General McKenzie. They
testified that the conditions were broken. They were broken from the
beginning, and this certainly gave the opportunity for Biden-Harris to
change course and not to be slaves of a particular time.
President Donald Trump has affirmed over and over--and I have been
with him at different events in the past year--that he would have left
a contingent of military allies at Bagram base to deter terrorism
worldwide.
President Trump would have achieved peace through strength. He would
have achieved maintaining the Bagram base so that we would not have it
under the control of Taliban terrorists or the Chinese Communist Party.
Additionally, I especially appreciate the success of Afghan veterans
keeping America safe for 20 years, with my youngest son, Lieutenant
Hunter Wilson, serving in Afghanistan for a year as an Army engineer. I
appreciate that so much.
I am also grateful that my former National Guard unit, the 218th
Mechanized Infantry Brigade of the South Carolina Army National Guard,
served for a year in Afghanistan. With the leadership of Adjutant
General Bob Livingston, they established what they called a brotherhood
with their Afghan brothers. They have been heartbroken to know, as
Chairman Mike McCaul has so correctly stated, that by abandoning so
many people in Afghanistan, they have been executed.
We know and hear women can no longer go to school, that they must
stay in their homes. I saw with the USAID programs where young girls
were being able to go to school, and it was just so inspiring to see
this. Now, women are being totally subjugated due to the Taliban, and
this must stop. The way to do that is to never have this occur in the
future.
Mr. Speaker, I urge support of the resolution.
Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, let me quickly rebut my dear friend before I
yield to Mr. Sherman.
Number one, it sounds like nothing was done by the administration or
anyone else for the last 2, 3 years. The administration has provided
over 20,000 pages and made over 15 witnesses available over this entire
Congress.
Secretary Blinken has said he did not want to testify. He said he is
willing to testify. The first time he was subpoenaed to come was when
he was in Egypt negotiating a cease-fire and return of hostages. I
think everyone has known that this particular week is U.N. week, so
that is not something that is secret. The record is clear on that.
The fact of the matter is, Secretary Blinken has testified over 14
times in Congress to Members of Congress, four of which were in our
committee. Delay the investigation? I think not.

Then he is questioning whether or not our memo doesn't cite
transcripts. In our memo, 43 of 59 total pages were cut and pasted
directly from witnesses' testimony.
What we asked for was transparency for the people, and for some of
those transcripts, I had to almost beg for them to be made public. It
wasn't automatically made public.
Lastly, Jen Psaki had nothing to do with these decisions. That is
just politics.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr.
Sherman).
Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, a decade ago, we faced a tough situation in
Afghanistan. We could have stayed indefinitely at a cost of $50 billion
a year and perhaps a dozen casualties a year, but then Donald Trump
promised the American people that we would withdraw and that, at that
point, it was no longer a possibility that America would remain
indefinitely.
So what was accomplished during the Obama administration in
Afghanistan? One important thing: We got bin Laden. What was
accomplished during the Biden administration? A very difficult
withdrawal, one of the most difficult military maneuvers carried out
early in the Biden administration. Not only did we withdraw our troops,
but we were able to get out perhaps 100,000 others. It was a difficult
maneuver accomplished, but not without casualties.
What did we get under the Trump administration? Nothing, except he
was able to sign a surrender agreement toward the end of his
administration that he could have signed at the beginning of his
administration.
This resolution is entirely appropriate if you change one thing:
Condemn not that list of people to which they added Harris at the end;
condemn one man, Donald J. Trump.
During his Presidency, 63 Americans died in Afghanistan, 57 of them
returned to dignified return ceremonies that Donald Trump was too busy
to attend. He was busy golfing instead.
During his Presidency, his golf handicap did not suffer, but 57
American widows and fathers and mothers and families suffered as they
saw the coffins brought back to America and a President too busy to be
there.
What did we accomplish for the $200 billion that Donald Trump spent
for the 63 who died? We signed a surrender document.
Now, I know they will say there are all kinds of wonderful things in
the document. It is nothing but meaningless promises with no
enforcement provisions, but don't take my word for it.
Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, Trump's National Security Advisor
said, our Secretary of State, Mr. Pompeo, signed a surrender agreement
with the Taliban.
Why surrender after you lose the 63 lives? Why not surrender in 2017?
That is because withdrawals are difficult; surrender documents easier.
Trump signed the surrender document and then left it to his successor
to accomplish the withdrawal.
So we are told, oh, well, Donald Trump somehow would have enforced
these meaningless conditions all without enforcement provisions. That
is not what he would have done.
What does John Bolton, Donald Trump's other National Security
Advisor, say. He said, had Donald Trump been reelected, he would have
been doing the same thing on the question of withdrawal from
Afghanistan.
But don't trust his staff. What did Donald Trump say? Donald Trump
said in October of 2020, after the 5,000 Taliban fighters had been
released because of Donald Trump's decision, he said, without any of
the conditions having been met, that he would have all those troops
home by Christmas 2020.
Those conditions were meaningless. They were meaningless to Donald
Trump. They were meaningless to his National Security Advisor. They had
no enforcement provisions in them.
Why did we stay in Afghanistan past 2017? So that Donald Trump didn't
have to accomplish the withdrawal that was so difficult and for which
he produced no plan.
We lost $200 billion, we lost 63 lives, we sent over $10 billion
worth of our equipment that was spread all over Afghanistan with no
prospect of recovering it, knowing that the Taliban would get it. We
did all that during the Trump administration.
Now, we are having a partisan resolution as to who is at fault? The
man who keeps our troops there, has 63 casualties, spends $200 billion,
signs a surrender agreement, announces he is not going to enforce the
provisions, and now we have this.
The Speaker pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.

[[Page H5797]]

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the
gentleman from California.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

The SPEAKER pro tempore. We were in error. The gentleman from New
York has 9 minutes remaining. The gentleman from Texas has 16 minutes
remaining.
The gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman) is recognized for 1
minute.

{time} 1545

Mr. SHERMAN. At least Mr. Trump was able to golf and didn't have to
go to the return ceremonies.
I would say that once you force the release of 5,000 Taliban
fighters, it is very difficult to say things are condition-based
because at that point, the Taliban has those 5,000 fighters and is able
to inflict hundreds and hundreds of casualties on our forces unless
they withdraw.
This was not a condition-based document. It was, in the words of
General McMaster, a surrender, and the surrender was in the fourth year
of the Trump administration.
Mr. Speaker, 63 of our finest died. Let us have a resolution
condemning the one man who should be condemned: Donald J. Trump.
Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I
love this argument. This is all Donald Trump's fault.
I would submit to you: Who made the decision to go to zero? You know
what that means? Go to zero means withdraw all troops, withdraw all air
cover, and withdraw all contractors.
That is precisely why Afghanistan imploded as fast as it did and why
President Ghani, like a coward, left his people behind.
All of this talk about Doha is immaterial. Don't take my word for
that. That is exactly what the White House said.
The Doha agreement was immaterial to the President's political
decision, which, by the way, was going to happen on September 11. What
an insult to the victims' families of 9/11.
The fact is, Donald Trump left troops in Afghanistan after his
advisers told him that the Doha agreement was being violated by the
Taliban.
They didn't cut their ties to al-Qaida. They did hit our troops. As a
result, Donald Trump kept 2,500 American troops in Afghanistan and
6,500 NATO troops.
They will tell you that wasn't sufficient. Don't take my word again.
Take the word of his top military generals: Milley, McKenzie, and
Miller.
Ask for investigations. What did they do when they were in charge?
They had one hearing and no investigation. You talk about political,
to cover up the tracks of this administration's disastrous withdrawal.
Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close. I have no further speakers and
reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
First, let me just say this because I heard this at the hearing the
other day.
When we were in charge, we held the first hearing after the
withdrawal for a Cabinet Secretary on September 21. Who was that
witness? Tony Blinken. The administration sent several Cabinet
officials to Congress to discuss the withdrawal. We held hearings with
Members because our position was trying to work in a bipartisan way and
trying to make sure that we were going to get to the facts and
understand so that we would never have this situation again after 20
years.
What did we do? We had hearings with people from the Bush
administration, from the Obama administration, and from the Trump
administration to look at the entire 20-year period of time, not
playing politics, not looking at a month or two because they all were
interconnected. It wasn't about politics for us.
As clearly stated here, there was no delay. The administration was
cooperative. The fact of the matter is, this Congress, the 118th
Congress, doesn't end until December 31.
If it is about the facts, if it is about learning the lessons, the
Secretary has already said he is willing to testify.
He didn't want to turn his back on his responsibility as the
Secretary of State, where he is now in a meeting, unfortunately.
I know maybe some of my Republican colleagues don't want him to talk
to President Zelenskyy about what is going on in Ukraine and Russia's
invasion into Ukraine. That is what he is doing. Maybe some of my
Republican colleagues don't want him to have that discussion.
Well, I think my side of the aisle wants him to have that discussion
because that is his job; to have a discussion to try to have a cease-
fire and return of hostages, to talk to our allies in the Indo-Pacific
and NATO that is now stronger than ever because of Joe Biden. That is
his job. That is what he is doing. Maybe some don't want him to do
that.
Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from New York has 5 minutes
remaining.
Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
California (Mr. Sherman).
Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, some say that we should have left Americans
there for this or that reason or the Taliban are doing this or the
Taliban are doing that.
They are saying that Biden should have left those Americans there to
die at the hands of the 5,000 Taliban fighters that Donald Trump had
released.
How many hundreds would have died if they had stayed there? I don't
know. Once you put 5,000 fighting Taliban into Kabul, I think at that
point, it is hard to insist on conditions.
Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time for the
purpose of closing.
Mr. Speaker, the first question in closing is the decision that had
to be made because of what the Trump administration had done, was
whether to withdraw, as Mr. Sherman has indicated, or to escalate or to
stay or to try to bring in more troops. As the generals have testified,
if we were going to stay, we were going to need more than the 2,500
that were there.
How long would we stay there?
How many more lives would we lose?
Because the fighting, the generals did say, would resume after the
deadline. Yes, Joe Biden decided no more American lives are we going to
lose. He made the right decision.
This resolution, as I have said all along, is nothing more than
political theater designed to score cheap points rather than address
the real issues at hand, the real issues.
It is a distortion of the facts and a disservice to the American
people, a disservice to our servicemembers, a disservice to our
diplomats, all of whom put their lives on the line during our 20-year
war effort there, and their sacrifices should not be used as a
political football.
We should be working on real solutions, supporting our Afghan allies,
ensuring that we learn the right lessons, and providing accountability
that is based on truth, not partisan narratives. There is time for us
to still do that.
I urge my colleagues to reject this resolution. Reject it, but let's
commit to the American people. Let's commit to those servicemembers and
the Gold Star families who have lost their loved ones.
Let's commit to them that today, we are going to work together in a
meaningful way that honors their sacrifice, that honors those who serve
and uphold the values that we all stand for.
Let us commit to come with a real report, not a partisan one. We can
do that. We can do that today. We can stand together today on behalf of
the people of the United States of America and those great soldiers.
How do I know that we can do that?
Because the United States of America is the greatest country that
this planet has ever seen. It is that when we do things together.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a partial minority staff report.

House of Representatives,

Committee on Foreign Affairs,

Washington, DC, September 9, 2024.
Dear Democratic Members of the Committee:
I am transmitting the attached memorandum prepared by
Committee minority staff summarizing the findings of the
Committee on Foreign Affairs' investigation in the 118th
Congress into the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
I have long voiced my concerns about Republican attempts to
politicize the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. In keeping
with the partisan tenor of this investigation, Committee
Republicans have indicated they will soon release a partisan,
majority report

[[Page H5798]]

on the Afghanistan withdrawal. The Majority did not involve
the Minority in this report, nor have they even provided a
draft copy to us. This comes on the heels of former President
Trump using a ceremony to honor 13 American servicemembers
killed in an ISIS-K terrorist attack as a campaign event to
call the Biden-Harris Administration culpable, though
Republicans knew for months that the attack was not
preventable and that, even though a witness told our
Committee he thought he had the ISIS-K bomber in his sights,
he did not. And it follows the Chairman's subpoena to
Secretary of State Blinken this week compelling testimony
Secretary Blinken has already provided to us, including as
the first cabinet official to publicly testify about the
withdrawal in September 2021. The majority has also
threatened to subpoena National Security Advisor Sullivan
after baselessly accusing him of misconduct and, for months,
has cherry-picked witness testimony to exclude anything
unhelpful to a predetermined, partisan narrative about the
Afghanistan withdrawal.
The Republican majority has taken particular pains to avoid
facts involving former President Trump--including his
committing the United States to a full, date-specific
withdrawal in a deal he negotiated with the Taliban that
excluded the Afghan government or any reference to the rights
of Afghan women and girls; his unilateral announcements to
withdraw troops, often a surprise to many of his own senior
officials, which undercut U.S. leverage because those
announcements were divorced from Taliban compliance with the
deal; and his forcing the Afghan government to release 5,000
Taliban fighters back to the battlefield before a final
Taliban offensive ultimately took Kabul. When former
President Trump took office, there were approximately 14,000
American troops in Afghanistan. Days before leaving office,
the former President ordered a further reduction to 2,500.
President Trump initiated a withdrawal that was irreversible
without sending significantly more American troops to
Afghanistan to face renewed combat with the Taliban. All
witnesses who testified on this issue agreed that the United
States would have faced renewed combat with the Taliban had
we not continued the withdrawal. Rather than send more
Americans to fight a war in Afghanistan, President Biden
decided to end it.
Republicans' partisan attempts to garner headlines rather
than acknowledge the full facts and substance of their
investigation have only increased with the heat of an
election season, and after recent public criticisms about the
investigation from former majority staff. With the ascendance
of Vice President Kamala Harris to the top of the Democratic
presidential ticket, the GOP performance has reached a
crescendo--Republicans now claim she was the architect of the
U.S. withdrawal though she is referenced only three times in
3,288 pages of the Committee's interview transcripts.
American taxpayers have funded this Committee's oversight,
and American people deserve the truth. We owe it to them to
highlight the facts elicited in this investigation without
undue spin and with respect for the seriousness of the
subject and the witnesses who have voluntarily testified to
us about it. If information we receive is hidden, twisted, or
used as a political cudgel it will undermine the Committee's
ability to undertake credible oversight going forward. This
is why I pressed the Chairman during a November 2023 hearing
to release all closed-door interview transcripts from this
investigation--five of which remain unreleased--and why I am
now transmitting the attached memorandum to complete the
picture on what this investigation has yielded.
In the September 2021 Committee hearing I referenced with
Secretary Blinken following the U.S. withdrawal from
Afghanistan, I called to mind some numbers to help us find
perspective on the work we were undertaking then and now:
800,000--the number of Americans who served with the U.S.
military in Afghanistan since 2001.
2,461--the number of American military personnel who died
in Afghanistan, including the 13 brave Americans who were
killed by ISIS-K as they facilitated the evacuation of more
than 120,000 people from Afghanistan over the course of 17
days.
66,000--the number of Afghan National Security Forces
killed in the conflict.
47,245--the number of Afghan civilians killed since 2001.
And finally, 20--the number of years we sent our brave men
and women to fight a war in Afghanistan, from which
disentangling ourselves was never going to be easy.
It strikes me now as it did during that hearing that many
of those critical of withdrawal effort simply have a
fundamental objection to President Biden fulfilling his
pledge to be the last Commander-in-Chief to preside over the
war in Afghanistan. They are masking their displeasure with
criticisms but have failed to offer feasible alternatives. We
must continue to wrestle with these matters not to rewrite
the past or assign partisan blame, but to identify lessons
that can help us better fight and end wars in the future.
Sincerely,
Gregory W. Meeks,
Ranking Member.
____

[From the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Sept. 9, 2024]

Minority Staff Memorandum on the Committee's Investigation in the 118th
Congress Into the United States' Withdrawal from Afghanistan

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary
Investigation Background

Executive Summary

For two decades after the heinous attacks of September 11,
2001, the United States military fought valiantly in
Afghanistan to degrade Al Qaeda, decimate its leadership, and
deny the use of Afghan territory to conduct terrorist
operations against the United States. Over that same time,
United States diplomats and development professionals worked
assiduously to help the Afghan government and people
establish good governance; respect human rights, particularly
of women and girls; and foster independent media, civil
society, and economic development. The United States spent
approximately 2 trillion dollars in Afghanistan from 2001-
2021. That expenditure reinforced--but could not substitute
for--the work of millions of Afghans to push back against
corrupt and violent actors and define their own future.
After achieving our core security objectives, the United
States increasingly risked continuing its war in Afghanistan
as an untenable, and unnecessary, end in itself. This risk
spurred both former President Donald Trump and President Joe
Biden to take actions during their respective administrations
to fully withdraw the U.S. military from Afghanistan.
President Biden completed that objective and ended the United
States' so-called ``forever war'' in Afghanistan.
During the course of the Committee's investigation into
this U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, witness testimony
reinforced--with remarkable consistency--the following
chronology of facts:
Amidst a steady, multi-year surge in Taliban territorial
gains across Afghanistan, the Trump Administration initiated
a deal with the Taliban--signed in Doha in February 2020--
that committed the United States to a full withdrawal of
military personnel and contractors by May 1, 2021 and laid
out brief conditions to which both sides agreed in order to
complete the withdrawal. The deal required the Taliban to
cease threatening the security of the United States or its
allies, but nothing in it required the Taliban to respect the
rights of women and girls or the Afghan constitution. The
agreement also compelled the Afghan government--itself not a
party to the deal--to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners, which
fundamentally altered the power balance in the country.
President Trump ordered a drawdown to 8,600 U.S. troops
within 135 days of the signing of the so-called ``Doha
Deal,'' as the agreement stipulated. He then unilaterally
ordered further drawdowns--to 4,500 troops by September 2020
and, after tweeting on October 7, 2020 his intent to have all
U.S. troops home by Christmas, to 2,500 troops by January
2021--despite the Taliban's lack of full compliance with the
Doha Deal. Trump's own lead negotiator and U.S. diplomatic
and military personnel testified to their uncertainty and
surprise around these unilateral troop drawdowns and a lack
of any commensurate interagency withdrawal planning process.
Upon taking office on January 20, 2021 after a delayed
presidential transition, President Biden ordered a
comprehensive interagency review of Afghanistan policy to
determine whether and how to complete the U.S. troop
withdrawal set into motion by his predecessor. Top U.S.
military officials recommended keeping a small force of at
least 2,500 troops in country until an indefinite time when
conditions on the ground might improve, but U.S. civilian and
military officials agreed that the Taliban would resume
attacks on U.S. forces--the one Doha Deal term the Taliban
had largely respected--if the withdrawal stopped or reversed.
On April 14, President Biden announced the United States
would complete its troop withdrawal by September 11, 2021.
In doing so, President Biden directed his Administration to
undertake deliberate withdrawal preparations, refine
counterterrorism efforts to prevent the reemergence of
threats, and determine the nature of a continued U.S.
diplomatic presence in Afghanistan--all of which, according
to witnesses, agencies subsequently did. Throughout 2021, the
Biden Administration dramatically accelerated processing of
Afghan Special Immigrant Visas (SIV), which had come to a
virtual halt by the end of the Trump Administration. The
Biden Administration also launched civilian evacuation
flights in July 2021 under Operation Allies Refuge to
facilitate departures of SIV applicants wanting to leave.
State Department officials noted that, despite more than 19
specific warnings from March-August 2021 telling American
citizens to leave Afghanistan and offers to help, including
financial assistance for plane tickets, many Americans in
Afghanistan were uncertain or unwilling to leave, and that
there was no mechanism to track their whereabouts if they did
not volunteer that information.
Throughout late spring and summer of 2021, the Taliban
launched attacks on several provincial capitals in
Afghanistan, which fell in what U.S. officials described as
unexpectedly rapid succession as Afghan security forces
surrendered or fled. On August 15, the U.S. Charge d'
Affaires in Kabul, in line with standard operating procedure
and plans in place, asked the Department of Defense to

[[Page H5799]]

initiate a non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO) and moved
U.S. embassy operations to the Hamid Karzai International
Airport in Kabul. Senior military officials had pressed for
closing the U.S. embassy and starting a NEO sooner, but State
Department leadership emphasized the risk these actions could
have on U.S. interests and an already precarious Afghan
government. Proving State Department officials' point, on
the same day the Department initiated the NEO, Afghan
president Ashraf Ghani fled the country despite earlier
pledges he would not. His departure triggered the collapse
of the Afghan government and security services.
The acute shift in power in Kabul prompted a chaotic
security situation and spike in demand from Afghan allies,
SIV applicants, and Americans living in Afghanistan to leave.
From August 15-31, 2021, U.S. military and diplomatic
personnel worked shoulder-to-shoulder during the NEO to
contact Americans and Afghan partners seeking to leave,
negotiate with the Taliban on safe passage through territory
it controlled, and facilitate the departure of more than
120,000 people. Consular processing by State Department
officials occurred virtually nonstop throughout--unless the
U.S. military closed the gates for security reasons--and
resumed within minutes of the August 26 ISIS-K bombing at
Abbey Gate that tragically killed 13 U.S. servicemembers and
approximately 170 Afghans. By the early hours of August 31,
the Biden Administration had facilitated the largest
humanitarian airlift in U.S. history and ended the United
States' longest war.
Key findings underpinning this chronological narrative, the
number of witnesses who testified to these facts, and
illustrative examples of their testimony are included in this
memorandum, along with further background on the
investigation itself. But it is important to underscore at
the outset what this factual narrative yielded in this
investigation is not. First, it is not new--it comports with
what Administration officials, the State Department's own
After-Action Review on Afghanistan (AAR), and extensive press
reporting have already said repeatedly over years about the
U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. This narrative is also not
without points of debate--such as over whether to retain a
small force in Afghanistan, whether U.S. analysts should have
better anticipated the fall of the Afghan government and
rapid speed of the Taliban's takeover, or the precise timing
of shifting from civilian-led evacuation flights to a NEO--
but no thorough policy process would be, nor do any
Commander-in-Chief's decisions satisfy everyone. Finally,
since it places the start of the withdrawal in the Trump
Administration, this narrative is not a neat political tool
with which to assail the Biden Administration.
As such, Committee Republicans have regrettably--and
repeatedly--attempted to downplay or twist the facts they
have heard in their own investigation, seeking instead to
perpetuate a narrative of ``the Biden-Harris withdrawal'' as
an ``unmitigated disaster of epic proportions'' for which the
current Administration is singularly responsible. These
attempts lack intellectual rigor and do not comport with the
facts gleaned from witness testimony. But the testimony
speaks for itself--and helps form a critical body of
knowledge, along with the findings and recommendations in the
State Department's After-Action Review and the ongoing work
of the Congressionally-mandated Afghanistan War Commission,
to help ensure that the United States can effectively
prosecute--and responsibly end--wars in support of our
national interests.

INVESTIGATION BACKGROUND

In a January 12, 2023 letter to Secretary of State Antony
Blinken, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael
McCaul signaled his intent to investigate what he described
as the Biden Administration's ``catastrophic withdrawal from
Afghanistan'' in the 118th Congress and issued a request for
extensive documents and information on the withdrawal, the
bulk of which was keyed to a timeframe beginning in January
2021. On January 18, 2023, the State Department confirmed in
writing its intent to cooperate with the Chairman's
investigation and to produce responsive documents and
information to the Committee.
The Department subsequently made 59 separate document
productions to the Committee, totaling 19,778 pages of both
unclassified and classified content. The productions include
underlying files to the Department's own Afghanistan After
Action Review (AAR). After Chairman McCaul threatened to hold
Secretary Blinken in contempt, the Department also made
available to Committee members, in camera, a July 2021
Afghanistan dissent channel cable in what it characterized as
an extraordinary accommodation, given the internal and
carefully regulated nature of the Department's dissent
channel to protect dissent cable drafters.
In addition, the Chairman requested closed-door transcribed
interviews (TIs) with multiple current and former State
Department officials--these requests comprised both career
officials and Biden Administration political appointees, but
only one non-career political appointee from the Trump
Administration (Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad) who President
Biden retained in his role as Special Representative for
Afghanistan Reconciliation. The Department subsequently
facilitated transcribed interviews with all of these
individuals. Separately, one former State Department officer
(Samuel Aronson) agreed directly to be interviewed in
response to a request from the Chairman. Additionally, one
former U.S. military official (General Austin ``Scott''
Miller) and one former White House official (Jen Psaki) sat
for transcribed interviews requested by the Chairman without
obstruction from the current Administration.
Since June 2023, bipartisan Committee staff conducted a
total of 18 TIs in unclassified and classified settings. The
TIs have often lasted as long as 10 hours, spanning multiple
issue areas. Department staff and, in some instances, private
counsels have participated in the TIs per the wishes of the
interviewee, all of whom have appeared voluntarily.
Interviewees by title relevant to the withdrawal and/or
evacuation and date of interview are below:
Former Deputy to Ambassador John Bass in Kabul, James
(``Jim'') DeHart, June 16, 2023,
Former Acting Chief of Staff to Ambassador Carol Perez,
Jonathan Mennuti, July 20, 2023,
Former Consular Affairs Lead in Kabul, Jayne Howell, July
28, 2023,
Former Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Afghanistan,
Mark Evans, August 23, 2023.
Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, this is a link to the full report summarizing
the findings of the Committee on Foreign Affairs' investigation in the
118th Congress into the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Https://
democrats-foreignaffairs.house.gov/_cache/files/a /0/a05d09c4_4b27-
4382_9818_0227a0156896/70CCFC2998DF 868322F60057FF59079D.hfac-
democratic-staff-memo-afghanistan-investigation-final-for-posting.pdf.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Let
me just say to my good friend for whom I have tremendous respect, we
work together on many bipartisan things, and when we don't agree, we do
so civilly. However, I cannot disagree with you more than I do today.
One of the byproducts of Bagram falling is 7,000 ISIS were released
from Bagram prisons. Some of them have found their way into the United
States.
What happened in Afghanistan is a tragedy, one of the worst foreign
policy failures in our Nation's history.
Who could ever forget the harrowing images of Afghans falling off the
planes and babies being flung over barbed wire in a desperate attempt
by mothers to save their children and escape Afghanistan under Taliban
rule?
The women that Mr. Wilson referred to, left behind along with
American citizens, are now enslaved under Taliban Sharia law. We are
the United States of America. You can't tell me we couldn't have safely
evacuated U.S. personnel, Americans, and our brave Afghan allies.
My report shows the administration had the information and the
opportunity to do so, but every step of the way, they chose political
optics over the safety of Americans. Their deadly and chaotic
withdrawal started a chain of events that have led to a world on fire.
We are witnessing the largest land invasion in Europe since World War
II with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the CCP has become emboldened and
more belligerent in their aggression toward Taiwan, and there is a war
raging in the Middle East, Mr. Speaker, with the Ayatollah now rearing
his ugly head.
That didn't happen by accident. It happened by design, and it started
with the fall of Afghanistan. When you project weakness on the world
stage, this is what you get: a world on fire inviting aggression from
our adversaries.
Our U.S. national security is degraded, America's credibility on the
world stage is damaged, and the moral injury to the American veterans
and servicemembers is a stain, an ugly stain, on this administration's
legacy.

{time} 1600

I close, Mr. Speaker, with a reminder of the consequences of the
actions of those named in this resolution, and it is the 13 heroic U.S.
servicemembers who made the ultimate sacrifice. I have met with their
loved ones, and they live with pain every single day. They wake up to
it every single day.
These servicemembers paid with their lives because of this
administration's failure on August 26, 2021, and I, for one, in this
Chamber, in this House, say I am sorry for what your government did to
you.
In their honor, I will read their names:
Marine Lance Corporal David Lee Espinoza

[[Page H5800]]

Marine Sergeant Nicole Gee
Marine Staff Sergeant Taylor Hoover
Army Staff Sergeant Ryan Christian Knauss
Marine Corporal Hunter Lopez
Marine Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum
Marine Lance Corporal Dylan Merola
Marine Lance Corporal Kareem Nikoui
Marine Sergeant Johanny Rosario Pichardo
Marine Corporal Humberto Sanchez
Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz
Navy Corpsman Maxton Soviak
Marine Corporal Daegan William-Tyeler Page
Nothing will bring their lives back. Nothing will bring these
children back to their parents, but we can hold those responsible
accountable, and that is what this resolution does.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support it, and I yield back the
balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Obernolte). All time for debate has
expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 1486, the previous question is ordered
on the resolution and the preamble.
The question is on adoption of the resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this question are postponed.

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