mr. chairman , i rise to ask my colleagues ' support for this amendment which seeks to obtain vital information necessary for congressional oversight of our policies in afghanistan . 
i first want to commend the gentleman from illinois ( mr. hyde ) xz4001920 for his leadership in bringing this legislation before the house . 
chairman hyde has been a consistent champion in the fight against international drug trafficking , and i thank him for his tireless efforts in that regard . 
this amendment is quite simple . 
it would require a report from the state department identifying all requests made by the u.s. government for extradition of drug traffickers from afghanistan , the status of those requests , and the response of the afghan government . 
this report will enable congress to evaluate the level of cooperation from the afghan government on this vital aspect of counterdrug activity . 
the u.s. will not be able to take effective action against the heroin trade if the afghan government refuses to apprehend and extradite major opium traffickers . 
mr. chairman , extradition is one of the most important tools in the struggle against international narcoterrorism . 
we need to be very sure that tool is functioning properly in afghanistan , the epicenter of the world 's heroin trade . 
as we vote to keep our troops still in afghanistan , they are not being shot at by missiles and bullets and guns bought by making microcomputers or by sales from their local wal-mart . 
it is coming from the heroin trade . 
the men and women dying in afghanistan are dying because of illegal narcotics and the heroin trade , which funded al qaeda and the taliban when they were in charge of afghanistan and continues to fund those who are shooting at us . 
we have to understand , and the afghan government has to understand , the necessity of going after these traffickers aggressively . 
to do that , we need information here in congress . 
because of that , although i know that the committee supports this , i am going to ask for a rollcall vote because i believe it is important that we in a bipartisan way go on record and say we must pursue in afghanistan , for the protection of our soldiers and families and workers all over the world , as heroin pours out of afghanistan at three times the level of anything that ever happened under the taliban . 
the greatest flow of heroin in world history is occurring now , and we have to get to the traffickers behind this . 
mr. chairman , i reserve the balance of my time . 
