Compromise emerging in D.C. on Iraq war-funding bill

Hammering out details will still be difficult. One key sticking point: What happens if 'benchmarks' are not met?

from the May 4, 2007 edition

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WASHINGTON - Since January, when divided government returned to Washington, the Democrat-controlled Congress and the Republican-run White House have spoken the language of "common ground." To date, not much has really changed in the nation's highly polarized politics. But now, each for their own reasons, the two parties appear headed on a path toward compromise over legislation to fund the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

An outline for funding legislation that Congress can pass and the president can sign is emerging – one that drops the firm timeline for bringing US troops home and adds a requirement that the Iraqi government meet benchmarks of progress. But hammering out the details will not be easy, as strains inside both parties over the Iraq war will force negotiators to calibrate carefully what will and will not satisfy enough members on both sides, and then the White House.

"The obvious alternative is to strip the dates and do the benchmarks," says Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "The question is, can you do that and get the president to go along?"

The sticking point over benchmarks centers on consequences: What if benchmarks are not met? Some top Democrats prefer a punitive approach – that if the Iraqis do not make progress, for example, in instituting an oil revenue-sharing plan or in disarming militias, the United States will cut nonmilitary aid.

The Bush administration is more interested in carrots than sticks – preferring incentives for progress rather than punishment for lack of progress. In the past, White House suggestions of benchmarks have ruffled Iraqi government sensitivities.

But even among top Republicans, there is a growing sense that the US commitment in Iraq cannot be open-ended and that benchmarks are appropriate. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has been widely quoted as saying that a number of Republicans believe properly crafted benchmarks can be helpful.

A recent Pew Research Center poll found that almost 60 percent of Americans wanted a timeline for US withdrawal in the Iraq funding bill, a point that has not gone unnoticed by Republicans.

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