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Congressional Daily Record
This section captures a floor statement or debate entry. It mentions members such as Betty McCollum. Extensions of Remarks are statements submitted for the official record, even if they were not spoken live on the floor.
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June 18, 2026
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Extensions of Remarks
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Download official Extensions PDFReturn to issue contextHON. BETTY McCOLLUM
of minnesota
in the house of representatives
Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, President Trump's reckless decision to take the United States to war with Iran without Congressional authorization has been a disastrous failure. Not only has the president's war of choice utterly failed to deliver on his own shifting military goals, it has cost the American people directly: increasing costs for many necessities like groceries, housing, health care, utilities, gasoline, and more. The war has also left the U.S. and the world in a more precarious geopolitical position.
the Iranian regime through U.S. military strikes and a popular uprising of the Iranian people. Not only did no popular uprising against the regime materialize, but President Trump's war has had the opposite effect on Iran. The Iranian regime is emboldened, and it is more tightly controlled by hardliners and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps than it was prior to the war. This will make the prospects for long-term peace with Iran more difficult.
President laid out. First and foremost is the failure to eliminate or secure the Iranian nuclear program's strategic materials. Iran's nuclear program has not been destroyed, and the United States and our allies now have far less visibility into the program than we did while President Obama's Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran was in effect. The war has also depleted U.S. stocks of critical munitions, creating a vulnerability for the U.S. military in other theaters.
United States and around the world. On average, gas prices have risen by over $1 per gallon since the
start of the war. When gas goes up, so does the price of everything else. We saw that reflected in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' May report on inflation which showed prices increasing at the fastest rate in three years. The American people are paying every single day for a war that no one voted for and Congress has not authorized.
the Strait of Hormuz, which was not closed prior to the start of the war. I welcome the international community's support for securing and maintaining the security of the Strait. I also support the ongoing ceasefire with Iran. But this ceasefire extension must lead to a tangible resolution to the war that provides for peace and long-term stability in the Middle East. That includes insisting that Israel honor its ceasefire with Lebanon and cease and desist its use of U.S. munitions in that conflict. This is not what President Trump announced on June 14th. The President's new agreement with Iran is just a tenuous sixty-day extension of the existing ceasefire. It may result in an end to the U.S. naval blockade of Iran and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, but that remains to be seen.
does nothing to resolve the most critical issues in this conflict, such as the status of the Iranian nuclear program, ballistic missile programs, frozen Iranian financial assets, or imposed U.S. sanctions. Without a resolution to these issues, long-term peace and stability in the region will remain out of reach.
pariah state. The Iranian regime was guilty of heinous crimes and human rights atrocities against its own people. But President Trump's war has allowed Iran to recast itself as a victim in the eyes of many around the world. Their regime is more hardline, emboldened to continue to disrupt security in the Middle East, and now have serious economic leverage over the United States and the world. The fault for this lies squarely with President Trump.