War supplemental talks break down over Iraq benchmarks

Negotiations between the White House and Democratic leaders broke down Friday on a supplemental funding bill for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan despite Democratic concessions to remove non-military spending from the package.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Appropriations Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., said they offered to drop all domestic spending in the $124.2 billion version Bush vetoed earlier this month, including disaster aid for farmers and ranchers, Hurricane Katrina assistance and stopgap children's health insurance coverage.

In exchange, they sought agreement to keep benchmarks, unit readiness requirements and timelines for troop redeployment in the bill, but all subject to waiver by the president.

"To say I was disappointed in the meeting is an understatement," Reid said. "The American people expect the president to respond to basic things like a timeline, to make sure there's troop readiness. The answer we got time after time in the meeting we had this morning is the president will take no responsibility. That's too bad."

White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten said he was surprised Democrats continued to push for a timeline and said the presidential waiver was not a "significant distinction" from the earlier bill. "Whether waivable or not, timelines send exactly the wrong signal to our adversaries, to our allies and, most importantly, to the troops in the field," he said.

Also present at the meeting were National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and Office of Management and Budget Director Rob Portman, along with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Appropriations ranking member Jerry Lewis, R-Calif.

Bush vetoed the initial version because of timelines, which set a goal of moving troops from offensive operations by next spring to more limited roles of protecting U.S. personnel and facilities, training Iraqi security forces and engaging in targeted anti-terror operations. The veto statement also cited what Bush said was excessive spending unrelated to the war effort.

"The president said he wanted a clean bill, so we said, 'OK,'" Pelosi said. "And what happened is of course the domestic funding was only an excuse for the president not to the sign the bill. It wasn't the reason. The reason he didn't sign the bill is he did not want to have any accountability."

Portman, however, said he was "encouraged" by the Democratic concessions on spending. Democrats said they would work through the weekend to try to produce a framework for a new bill by Monday, reiterating their commitment to reach agreement before leaving for the Memorial Day recess.

"We will get together and see what we think is the most responsible way to proceed now that the administration is apparently simply sticking to its original position," said Obey.

The Senate appointed its conferees Thursday night, and the House is expected to follow suit early next week.

Ben Schneider contributed to this report.