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Congress puts its marker on Iraq war, but how big?
The Senate, following the House's vote Friday, is to weigh a war-funding bill – with exit dates.
By Gail Russell Chaddock | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the March 26, 2007 edition
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WASHINGTON - After the House vote Friday that laid out a schedule for US troop withdrawal from Iraq, the Senate this week takes up a bill that outlines its own timetable for ending the US combat role in that conflict-riven nation.
Neither bill appears to have the backing to override the presidential veto that is certain to follow. But Democrats now controlling Congress say the power of the purse – and a roused US public – may yet bring about changes in President Bush's war policy.
Immediately at stake is more than $100 billion in emergency war funding that the Pentagon says is needed before April 15. In the absence of such a spending measure, men and women in uniform will face serious disruptions, it says.
"I've asked Congress to pass an emergency war-spending bill that gives our troops what they need, without strings and without delay. Instead, a narrow majority in the House of Representatives decided yesterday to make a political statement," Mr. Bush said during his Saturday radio address.
As in the House, the Senate debate is expected to focus on whether lawmakers should, in Republicans' words, "micromanage" the war in Iraq and whether billions in nondefense-related projects should be added to the war-funding bill.
On Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her new Democratic leadership overcame deep divisions in their caucus to hand Bush the strongest rebuff on the war of his presidency. "The American people do not support a war without end and neither should this Congress," said Speaker Pelosi, as she closed out the debate on redeploying US combat troops from Iraq by Sept. 1, 2008.
On their way to a 218-to-212 victory, Democrats added $24 billion to the $103 billion emergency supplemental request, including millions to store peanuts, grow spinach, provide health insurance for children, and remove asbestos from the US Capitol power plant.
Republicans, who held their caucus together with only two defections, called the add-ons bribery. "The sweeteners in this bill are political bribery, and our troops deserve more than this," said Rep. Sam Johnson (R) of Texas, a former US prisoner of war in Vietnam, to a standing ovation on the GOP side of the aisle.
The Senate takes up its own $121.7 billion version of the emergency spending bill on Monday. The bill requires that US forces begin redeploying out of Iraq four months from the date of the bill's passage and sets a goal of removing combat troops by March 31, 2008 – five months earlier than the House bill calls for. Unlike the House bill, the Senate version is nonbinding.
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