Dems seek funding boost for Afghanistan, domestic programs

House Democrats unveiled a massive emergency funding bill Thursday for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, adding billions to President Bush's request for military readiness, veterans' health and domestic programs.

The White House immediately issued a veto threat. The bill would set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq by next fall and sets readiness guidelines Bush could waive to send units overseas.

It also focuses more resources on the "forgotten war" in Afghanistan against al-Qaida and the Taliban, said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. It provides $1.2 billion in additional funding for military operations there.

Appropriations Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., said he was "still making modest adjustments," but an outline provided by his office showed nearly $21 billion in additions over Bush's $103 billion request, including $2.5 billion for port, border and aviation security; $2.9 billion for Gulf Coast hurricane relief, nearly doubling Bush's request; and $4.3 billion for agriculture disaster aid.

The bill also includes $1 billion for avian flu preparedness, $500 million to combat wildfires, $400 million for low-income heating subsidies and $735 million -- offset -- for a children's health program. It was expected to extend an expired program to pay rural counties that have experienced declining timber sales.

Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., said the supplemental would also include a one-month extension of the milk income loss contract program to Sept. 30. The extension to the end of the fiscal year will force the Congressional Budget Office to include the MILC program in the farm bill baseline.

The bill would add $3.5 billion for military and veterans' health care, including brain injury and amputee care. Democrats created a "strategic reserve readiness fund" to address training and equipment shortfalls in units that have not been deployed.

"When this war started, almost every reserve unit in all our active duty strategic reserves was at the highest level of readiness. Now, they're at the lowest state of readiness," said Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha, D-Pa., who added $2.5 billion for the readiness fund.

Murtha also included a stipulation preventing deployment of any unit to Iraq that is not "fully mission capable," unless waived by the president. The bill would prevent extensions of Army troop deployments beyond one year and require a year's rest at home before being redeployed.

In all, Murtha added $4 billion for military operations above the president's request, accompanied by reductions to items Democrats considered duplicative or better included in the base fiscal 2008 Defense bill. That includes eliminating the purchase of two Joint Strike Fighters and five electronic attack airplanes the Navy requested.

The bill sets the stage for withdrawal of U.S. forces in Iraq. It requires the president to certify twice that the Iraqi government has met political benchmarks -- first by July 1 and then by Oct. 1 this year.

If the benchmarks are not met, troop redeployments must begin and be completed within six months. If the benchmarks are met, troops must be removed from Iraq beginning March 1, 2008, and ending within six months. The plan "will set a timeline for bringing the United States participation in the Iraq civil war to an orderly and responsible close," Obey said.