He said the legislation approved Tuesday requires the President, within 60 days, to submit a report on the status of redeployment planning to the Congressional defense committees, and updated reports every 90 days thereafter.

The bill also states that contingency planning for a redeployment of U.S. Armed Forces from Iraq should address: protection for the U.S. Forces in Iraq; protection for U.S. civilians, contractors, third party nationals, and Iraqis who have assisted the U.S. mission in Iraq; the ability of the U.S. government to eliminate and disrupt Al Qaeda and affiliated terrorist organizations; and preservation of military equipment necessary to defend the national security interests of the United States.

"Clearly, mistakes were made by the Administration as it was putting our troops into Iraq in the early months of the war in 2003," Mollohan said. "Ever since Baghdad fell in April 2003, our mission in Iraq has been undermined by a lack of planning. The problems we see in Iraq today including the outbreak of a sectarian civil war, the wide availability of weapons and explosives used against U.S. troops, and the lack of basic services can be ti ed to the lack of adequate planning. This Congress is taking steps to turn the situation around."

Mollohan noted that from the time the war began in the spring of 2003 through the end of 2006, there were no meaningful oversight hearings on the conduct of the war in Iraq.

"Since the new Congress took over last January, more than 250 hearings on issues related to the Iraq war have been held, uncovering violence by U.S. private contractors in Iraq, severe levels of strain on American troops, health care failures for returning veterans, and billions of U.S. dollars wasted in Iraq," Mollohan said.

He said the legislation passed Tuesday continues Congress' effort to restore vigorous oversight of Iraq activities and is a solid step toward accomplishing what the "surge" did not accomplish - an eventual orderly withdrawal from Iraq.