Supplemental aid request could be a tough sell on Capitol Hill

In a sign of unrest over supplemental aid for Iraq and Afghanistan, the House Appropriations Committee has canceled a Wednesday subcommittee hearing after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick informed the panel of scheduling conflicts, aides said.

Rice was originally planning to testify next week in advance of the Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee markup March 8. But late last week, Rice's aides informed appropriators she will be traveling to India with President Bush next week and that Zoellick would testify in her place.

Zoellick now has a conflict as well, which was too much for House Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., who scrapped the hearing altogether.

Such a tiff -- one week before the House Appropriations Committee was to mark up the supplemental -- suggests trouble ahead for the president's $92.2 billion request for military operations, foreign aid and hurricane relief. The Senate's committee markup already is pushed back until after the Easter recess because of a crowded floor schedule.

The delays and a perceived lack of attention from the Bush administration concern lawmakers and aides as they comb through the request. Of particular concern is $3.25 billion to aid in the counterinsurgency effort and transition to self-government in Iraq, likely a campaign issue for Republicans.

The aid package "will be a tough sell for the Congress, and it's going to be even harder when they don't send someone up here with some juice to sell it," a House GOP appropriations aide said.

The White House has requested $4 billion in non-military aid for Iraq in the fiscal 2006 supplemental and fiscal 2007 budget. Of that, $3.25 billion is in the supplemental, with $1.64 billion for State and USAID operating expenses and $1.61 billion for foreign assistance.

The latter is on top of $20.9 billion for Iraq rebuilding Congress already has appropriated, the subject of bitter debate since the invasion ended in 2003. Of that money, $2.7 billion remains to be obligated, and by April -- when Congress mostly is in recess -- less then $1.5 billion is estimated to be left.

The State Department has told congressional staff it will need cash by June, when the original Iraq reconstruction funding will be exhausted.

That money is expected to last the first half of fiscal 2007, when $771.2 million in regular fiscal 2007 funding would kick in. The existence of fiscal 2007 money in the supplemental irks lawmakers, as it allows the White House to cut back on regular budget items to hold down deficit projections while funding its priorities as "emergency" spending that does not count against budget caps.

The supplemental would support initiatives such as youth employment training; monetary policy-making; seed money for think tanks and housing for reporters covering Saddam Hussein's trial, for example. The $1.64 billion for State and USAID expenses in Iraq includes $1 billion for U.S. mission costs spread out over two years, while USAID would receive $120 million during that time.

Non-emergency items are not limited to Iraq or to the White House. Initially submitted as part of the fiscal 2007 budget, there is $41 million in the supplemental for House of Representatives security, including $5 million to buy 15 acres of land adjacent to the Capitol's undisclosed "Alternate Computer Facility."

The government already owns 90 acres but wants to buy the remaining land before its price skyrockets due to competition from private developers.