"There are many people in our districts that are looking at the situation Iraq. As we talk about building new schools, the need new schools too," Congressman Elijah Cummings told a press conference.

"As we talk about building universal health care in Iraq, we've got 40 million people in this country who need health care too," said Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland who leads the bloc of African-American lawmakers in the US legislature.

"When we talk about election reform in Iraq, we've got some problems with election reform here in this country ... as evidenced by the 2000 election" he said, adding that electoral reform in the United States was still to be fully funded.

By some estimates, total reconstruction costs for Iraq will total some 100 billion dollars, with the United States expected to foot a substantial portion of the tab.

SPACE.WIRE