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Iraq supplemental not to be ‘clean,’ but firm withdrawal timeline dropped |
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By Mike Soraghan and Elana Schor
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Posted: 04/23/07 09:32 PM [ET] |
The Iraq supplemental will not be as “clean” as President Bush demanded, but Democratic appropriators yesterday agreed to eliminate two domestic-spending projects that Bush and the GOP have criticized and to remove the fixed timeline for troop withdrawal.
The House-Senate conference committee on the supplemental, which Democrats have trumpeted as the first open conference in years, agreed to replace the binding timetable in the House’s original version with a redeployment goal of April 1, 2008. Conferees also removed $25 million in relief for spinach farmers, $40 million for the Christmas-tree industry, and $74 million in peanut-storage money from the bill.
“We have compromised on two fronts,” said House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.).
Using the conference meeting as a backdrop, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) blasted Bush for his Friday remarks that the recent troop escalation in Iraq is “meeting expectations” despite mounting violence in Baghdad.
“The White House transcript says the president made those remarks in the state of Michigan,” Reid said in a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center. “I believe he made them in the state of denial.”
The White House volleyed back at Reid almost immediately, echoing its fierce pushback to the Democratic leader’s comment last week that “this war is lost.”
“Any quick glance in the mirror would show him that he’s in denial on several things,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said of Reid.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) seized on Reid’s urging that the president send Congress an alternative supplemental that acknowledges the Democrats’ perspective on pullout from Iraq.
“To me, the answer to the Democrats’ quandary is quite simple: Take out the surrender date, take out the pork and send it to the president for his signature as soon as possible,” McConnell said in a statement. “Not only would this prevent a veto, it would get the funds, equipment and training to our troops faster, and do it without tying the hands of the generals in the field.”
As rhetorical combat continues over the supplemental conference report, some senior lawmakers already have started preparing legislation for after Bush’s veto. House Defense Appropriations Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) has said it is likely the next step will be a two-month supplemental bill, but Senate leaders have yet to signal support for such an approach.
The $124 billion supplemental is likely to come to the floor tomorrow in the House and Thursday in the Senate. The conference report uses House language requiring Bush to formally announce “waivers” when he’s deploying troops that do not meet readiness standards. Also included are $3 billion for base realignment and closure, $2 billion for veterans’ healthcare, nearly $7 billion for Gulf Coast recovery and $650 million for state children’s health insurance programs.
The conference report would require Bush to certify by July that the Iraqi government is making progress or begin a withdrawal. Even if he can certify Iraqi progress, it would call on troops to begin redeployment by October of this year.
House Republicans made clear that whatever compromises Democrats may claim to have made, Bush will still veto the bill.
“We all know this bill is going nowhere fast,” said Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), the top Republican on Appropriations. |
