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The Senate might vote Sunday on whether to take up a $50 billion war funding bill that calls for a troop withdrawal from Iraq in 12 months, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) warned Thursday. Reid told reporters that he plans to file cloture Friday on a motion to proceed to the Iraq funding bill, meaning that 60 votes will be needed to move to the bill on Sunday, when the cloture petition ripens. But he added that the vote might be moved up if he reaches an agreement with Republican leaders on the process for taking up the measure. “We’ll either do it easily or the hard way,” Reid said. Democratic and Republican aides said the two sides were working on an agreement that could allow the vote to occur as early as Friday. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) filed cloture Thursday on a Republican-sponsored $70 billion troop funding bill that does not include a timeline for withdrawing troops from Iraq. If no agreement is reached, a cloture vote could occur on the McConnell bill as early as Saturday. The House narrowly passed the Democratic bill Thursday night on a 218-213 vote, but prospects for the 60 votes needed to move to both the GOP and Democratic bill in the Senate are murky at best. The votes could be the last of the year on Iraq. Democrats say that the Pentagon will be forced to fund the war through the $460 billion Defense Department spending bill that was signed into law this week if the White House and Republicans do not agree to a change in the course of the war. That has prompted strong concerns from the White House and the GOP, who say not providing either a portion or all of the $196 billion supplemental war funding request will make it increasingly difficult for the Pentagon to plan for and carry out the war. “The days are over when the money is sent with no questions asked,” said Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the vice chairman of the Senate Democratic Conference. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday night’s vote would be the last taken on Iraq for the year. As a result, Reid said: “We can yell and scream and wave our arms over here,” but more Iraq votes in the Senate this year would be frivolous. The senator added that it would be “extremely difficult” to bring an Iraq funding bill to the floor after lawmakers return from their two-week Thanksgiving Day recess. “There isn’t a lot of time when we get back in December other than to finish how we finance the government,” Reid said. |
