US House leaders agree to fund Iraq war without timetables

The House is expected to approve a measure Thursday that fully funds the president's $96 billion request but does not set a deadline for troop withdrawal.

from the May 24, 2007 edition

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In response, House Democrats say that they had no choice but to let the war-funding bill go forward. While votes to require a timetable for the withdrawal of US combat forces from Iraq have been on the rise, they are still short of a majority in both the Senate and the House – and well short of a veto-proof majority.

Earlier this month 171 House members backed a bill by Rep. James McGovern (D) of Massachusetts to start a withdrawal within 90 days of enactment. Last week, only 29 senators backed an amendment by Sen. Russ Feingold (D) of Wisconsin to require a withdrawal by March 31, 2008.

"The president doesn't need to pay attention to any of this stuff. But the Senate is not where we are," says Representative McGovern, adding he will vote against the war-funding measure.

Other antiwar Democrats say that given the votes they had no choice but to allow a measure to go through. "It's a concession to reality," says Rep. James Moran (D) of Virginia.

"The first measure [to fund the war] will pass with Republicans and some Democrats; the second measure will be all Democrats and some Republicans," he adds. "But there's still no commitment for the president to do anything.

On the Senate side, three Iraq-related votes on a water bill last week set the parameters of a compromise. By a vote of 87 to 9, the Senate backed an amendment by Sen. Thad Cochran (R) of Mississippi expressing a sense in the Senate that Congress should send a supplemental spending bill for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to the president by May 28.

In a separate vote, 52 senators backed an amendment by Sen. John Warner (R) of Virginia that would have withheld economic aid funding for Iraq if the Iraqi government did not meet political and security benchmarks. The Warner language is now part of the compromise war-funding bill, which requires the president to report to the Congress in July and September on the Iraqi government's progress in meeting 18 benchmarks, but also includes a waiver that Bush can sign.

In a floor speech opposing the amendment, Senate majority leader Harry Reid called the benchmarks "weak, weak, weak." But in a press briefing after a Senate Democratic caucus meeting on Tuesday, Senator Reid struck a more conciliatory tone.

He said that the Senate hopes to complete the war-funding request by Thursday night or Friday, but that the Senate would "continue focusing every day on the need to change direction in Iraq."

"This is the seventh supplemental appropriation bill that the president's sent us," [and] ... "it'll be the first supplemental that he has that he hasn't been given a blank check," he added.

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