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Republicans on Wednesday approved legislation condemning a number of Biden administration officials for the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, casting it as an accountability measure for the failed exit.
The bill censures both President Biden and Vice President Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for their role in the withdrawal, along with 11 other current and former officials.
Ten Democrats joined Republicans to pass the bill with a 219-194 vote.
“Rather than admit their failure, this administration continues to this day to celebrate their deadly evacuation,” House Foreign Affairs Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said in kicking off debate on the House floor.
“You cannot fix a problem without first admitting that there is a problem. That's what accountability is all about.”
The legislation is the first major GOP bill involving Afghanistan to secure approval, and it does not include what advocates for Afghans say is among the most pressing issues related to the withdrawal: enhancing efforts to aide Afghan allies left behind during the exit or provide a pathway to citizenship for those brought to the U.S. on temporary immigration statuses.
The legislation comes after McCaul’s panel released a more than 300-page report reviewing the decision making and planning involved with the evacuation.
While highly critical of Biden, the report spends little time analyzing the role of former President Trump, who previously negotiated the U.S. exit with the Taliban, committing to an earlier timeline.
Also under Trump, immigration processing slowed to a crawl, including for those eligible for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs), the multi-step pathway for those who assisted the U.S. military or contractors to come to the U.S. The trickle of processing on the lengthy progress hindered the Biden administration’s ability to swiftly relocate allies.
And while the report condemns the Biden-Harris administration’s decision, it struggles to identify specific actions the vice president took in planning the exit.
Nonetheless, the chaotic departure resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. servicemembers and more than 170 Afghans, while leaving allies and others vulnerable under Taliban rule behind.
Democrats were quick to blast the legislation as an election-year hit on the president while highlighting the report contained little information on Harris.
“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's why President Biden said it was a success and pulling out of Afghanistan was the right thing to do,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the foreign affairs panel.
He also blasted Republicans for the timing of their report and its focus on Harris.
“They wanted to make a spectacle before the November elections,” Meeks said, while noting Harris is referenced only three times in the more than 3,000 pages of interview transcripts.
McCaul has denied that politics played a role in the timing of the report and has often complained that Biden administration officials slow-walked their responses.
He is also moving ahead with plans to hold Blinken in contempt of Congress for failing to testify on the withdrawal.
“The timing of our investigation and of this report was not of my making. It was not my timing. It was deliberately delayed by this administration, I think in a plan to take it well beyond this election, well beyond this Congress,” McCaul said.
Meeks on Wednesday closed with a plea to colleagues to back legislation that would support Afghan allies both in the U.S. and still abroad.
“There is legislation that Congress can pass now to move forward. Something impartial. Something that will have real credibility,” he said.
“The Afghan Adjustment Act and the Afghan Allies Protection Act, which are long-standing, bipartisan proposals, would keep the faith with the Afghans who fought and worked alongside us.”
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