House, dropping timetable, backs two-stage plan for funding the war
The bill, approved Thursday, is not likely to go far. Both President Bush and many Democrats in the Senate oppose it.
By Gail Russell Chaddock | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the May 14, 2007 edition
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WASHINGTON - Defying a presidential veto threat, the House of Representatives voted to partially fund the war in Iraq: $43 billion in emergency funding now and another $53 billion in July, if President Bush can show progress.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Thursday evening's vote, 221 to 205 in favor of the bill, "the end of a blank check for the president's war without end."
House Republican leader John Boehner called the bill to "ration funding" for US troops irresponsible and "dead on arrival."
Mr. Bush's veto threat, along with opposition to the bill from many Senate Democrats, means that the House war-funding measure - its second in as many weeks - has no chance of becoming law. But it moves Congress closer to a negotiation between the House and Senate over the president's $96 billion emergency request.
Indeed, there are signs that Congress and the White House are moving toward a compromise on the war-funding request, which has been pending on Capitol Hill for more than three months.
Ahead of Thursday evening's vote, Bush called on Congress to fully fund the troops and to give Gen. David Petraeus's plan a chance to work. "Time is running out, because the longer we wait, the more strain we're going to put on the military," the president said after a Pentagon briefing on Thursday morning.
In a nod to an emerging consensus on Capitol Hill, he also reaffirmed that it is important for the Iraqi government to meet benchmarks, including a national oil law, provincial elections, a new de-Baathification policy, and a review of the Iraqi constitution..
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