New Jersey’s Senators Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez were among 24 Senators who voted for the Feingold amendment which called for withdrawal of most US troops from Iraq in 9 months. The NJ Senators were also among 17 co-sponsors of the Feingold amendment. Lautenberg and Menendez also voted for the Levin amendment and they voted against the McConnell amendment to provide funds without conditions.
Congressmen Donald Payne and Bill Pascrell, and New Jersey’s five other Democratic Congressmen voted against the Senate bill that was returned to the House with $70 billion McConnell amendment attached.
Click HERE for details and links for votes.

On February 28, 2009, President Obama announced a timetable to bring home ALL American troops from Iraq in two stages: all combat troops by August 2010 and the remaining 35,000-50,000 troops by December 2011.
Many would prefer a faster timeline, and that is still a possibility, especially since lives continue to be lost and deployment through 2011 would cost America about $200 billion that we obviously need at home. But what is most important is that our country has taken the first step to end the war, and we have a national consensus to do so.

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Video of meeting posted on Maplewood Online. Click button to view.