Senate passes wartime spending package with two GOP votes

The Senate on Thursday approved a $123.2 billion supplemental spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, hurricane relief, veterans' health and agriculture disaster aid.

The vote was 51-47, with Sens. Gordon Smith of Oregon and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska the only Republicans supporting it. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., voted against the bill.

The measure endorses a March 31, 2008, pullout date from Iraq. President Bush vowed again Thursday to veto the bill because of the billions of dollars in extra nonmilitary spending and the Iraq withdrawal timeline.

"We stand united in saying loud and clear that when we've got a troop in harm's way, we expect that troop to be fully funded; and we've got commanders making tough decisions on the ground, we expect there to be no strings on our commanders; and that we expect the Congress to be wise about how they spend the people's money," Bush said after a meeting with GOP leaders.

"No bill has ever deserved the veto pen more than this one," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the floor.

The White House later left the door open a crack for negotiations on aspects of the bill but not the withdrawal timetable.

Democrats said the bill provides funding for military operations and healthcare for soldiers and returning veterans; money needed to rebuild the Gulf Coast, and to help farmers and ranchers cope with natural disasters.

"Instead of demonizing the Congress and engaging in rhetorical finger-pointing, the president ought to work with Congress on legislation that is in the best interests of the country," Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said "the ball is in the president's court."

At the White House, spokeswoman Dana Perino said that if Democrats want compromise, "then we're willing to talk to them on ways that their bills can be changed in order to get to the president's desk so that it doesn't meet his veto."

Before final passage, the Senate added $1.5 billion for additional mine-resistant vehicles to protect troops against attacks with improvised explosive devices, which the amendment's sponsor, Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., said account for about 70 percent of U.S. combat fatalities in Iraq.

The amendment passed 98-0, bringing the bill's price tag to $123.2 billion. Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Jim DeMint, R-S.C., were mostly stymied in their efforts to strip domestic items. DeMint failed, 57-41, to eliminate $40 million for tree assistance and could not even get a vote to institute earmark disclosure requirements.

But they were successful in eliminating $2 million for an institute named after former Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., at the University of Vermont, and blocking conferees from including $25 million for spinach growers as proposed in the House bill.

Senators also struck language inserted by Reid that would have allowed highway billboards knocked down by hurricanes to be replaced, which Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., called "a big wet kiss to the billboard lobby."

Keith Koffler contributed to this report.