06/18/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 06/18/2026 15:20
BATON ROUGE, L.A. - Congressman Cleo Fields today issued the following statement expressing his strong disapproval of the preliminary framework agreement announced this week between the United States and Iran:
"Let me be clear about what this agreement actually is. After dragging the country into a conflict that was never a war of necessity, the President is now searching for an offramp from a war of his own choosing, and he is asking the American people to foot the bill for it.
This war has been extraordinarily costly. It has cost us both in American lives and in America's standing in the world. Families across Louisiana and across this country have absorbed the consequences of a decision made without a clear objective and without a plan to end it. And after all of that sacrifice, this deal delivers no tangible benefit to the people who paid the price.
I take particular issue with the $300 billion figure at the center of this arrangement. The administration wants Americans to believe this is a costless win, but you cannot wave away a number that large with talking points. Whether it is framed as a private fund, a reconstruction plan, or something else entirely, the language is deliberately vague, and it should alarm every taxpayer and every member of Congress.
The American people deserve more than a hastily assembled framework designed to let the President declare success and move on. They deserve to know what this is going to cost, what we are actually getting in return, and why they were asked to bear the burden of a war that never had to be fought.
I will be pressing for full transparency and for honest answers about use of the $300 billion. Congress and the American people deserve transparency around how their tax dollars are being put to use."
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