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Reid, Pelosi ready snub on Iraq bill
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) prepared to snub Capitol Hill’s most powerful money men, suggesting Thursday that they could hold votes on a massive wartime spending bill without letting appropriators touch the legislation first.
Such a move risks creating a big battle over Iraq in an election year. The final decision has not been made, but lawmakers and aides familiar with discussions say there’s a strong chance the shortcut plan will go ahead.
Leaders appear to favor moving the bill directly to the chamber floors, limiting the number of amendments that could be offered.
This has infuriated Republicans and Democratic appropriators, who would be shut out of the process.
Plans to short-circuit the process come after the Senate’s 90-year-old Appropriations chairman, Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), whose recent frailty has raised questions about his capacity to run the panel, ignored leadership negotiations and scheduled a committee markup next week.
Democratic leaders reacted coolly to Byrd’s move. “It’s easy to cancel a markup,” Reid said Thursday, and suggested that Byrd was motivated by a desire to “protect” the appropriators’ turf.
Reid was studiedly dismissive of the panel, saying, “I don’t know whether there is a need to have a markup over here with the Appropriations Committee.”
A spokesman for Byrd declined to comment on Reid’s statements.
The majority leader is waiting to see what emerges from the House before he settles on a strategy for moving a bill. President Bush wants it limited to $108 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Byrd’s move inspired Rep. Jerry Lewis (Calif.), the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, to ask Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) to hold a markup. In a letter, he told Obey that bypassing the committee would be a “shameful power grab by House and Senate leaders.”
Nevertheless, similar considerations are being taken in the House. A bill is being drafted behind closed doors and could hit the floor as soon as next week.
Pelosi said Thursday that she did not want to send Bush a bill that he would veto, which would require starting over.
“We’d rather save time and get it over with,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi said she wants to include the so-called GI Bill of Rights, which would expand veterans’ benefits such as tuition payments.
While Republicans have complained bitterly about the idea to bypass the panel, it has drawn measured complaints from House Democrats.
Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), a member of the Appropriations Defense subcommittee, said he’s satisfied that members of the defense panel are being consulted.
But Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), also a member of the Defense subcommittee, said she does not like the maneuver.
“When you don’t fully debate the bill in subcommittee and committee, you don’t fully represent America,” Kaptur said.
Speaking on the House floor Thursday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said the decision to bring the bill to the floor, “candidly, it is still up in the air.”
On the Senate side, Reid said “there was no kickback” during a Tuesday meeting with his conference over a detailed discussion over procedure. He also said “it’s no big deal” if the bill doesn’t get completed by Memorial Day since there would still be money left for Iraq.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), an appropriator who also serves as the majority whip, withheld his support for holding a markup, saying the chamber would wait for the House to act.
In addition to Byrd, several Democratic appropriators have called for the bill to be open for amendments in committee.
“You always have a risk of a veto, but that can’t scare us because if it comes, we’ll just fight back,” said Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), an appropriator up for reelection this year.
Bob Cusack contributed to this article.
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