House to take up bill on Iraq bridge fund, troop withdrawal
Measure would fund military operations for four months on condition that troop withdrawal begin by Christmas 2008.
The House could vote as early as Friday on a measure providing a $50 billion bridge fund to continue military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for about four months, on the condition that troops be withdrawn from combat zones in Iraq by Christmas 2008.
"This is not a blank check for the president," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. The funding is a little more than one-quarter of President Bush's $189.3 billion fiscal 2008 request, and Democratic leaders hesitated to approve that much given heavy opposition to the Iraq war. But Democrats changed course under pressure from the Pentagon, which fears a significant funding shortfall in January, and from Republicans ready to pounce at any sign of "shortchanging" the troops.
The measure's target date of Dec. 15, 2008, is nonbinding, meaning it could lose support from die-hard Iraq war opponents in the House. It also faces a steep hurdle in clearing the Senate, where the measure would be open to amendment and would need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster.
"I think we should take it a step at a time," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who said the Senate probably would take up the bill next week. He declined to comment on whether he expected more support from Republicans. "I have in the past thought that we would have more Republicans than what we did. I hope so," Reid said.
Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., a staunch war opponent, said he was unsure of the strategy, given the high bar in the Senate and Bush's likely veto.
"I can't see any reason to vote for it unless it's just to poke a stick in the Senate's eye," McDermott said. "When we go home to our districts we get the hell beat out of us by the anti-war forces, but it's not our fault. We're getting tarred with the same brush as the Senate."
Aides described the contents of the package as in flux, and Pelosi appeared unsure of whether it would be ready for the floor Friday. But the measure was expected to contain rest and training requirements for troops being sent into combat, as well as requiring the use of the Army Field Manual governing the interrogation of terrorist suspects. That provision is aimed at ending the CIA's use of waterboarding, which simulates drowning.
The House Thursday approved, 400-15, the $471 billion fiscal 2008 Defense appropriations bill, which does not contain additional war-related spending except for $11.6 billion to purchase mine-resistant vehicles. Republicans protested the fact that bridge funds were not included in the base bill but as a separate measure that would potentially bog down.
"It's a mistake to pass a bridge fund wrapped in so much red tape and conditionality as to force the president to veto it," said Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J. Reid said the Senate could take up the bill later Thursday, which contains a continuing resolution to fund the government through Dec. 14.
House Republicans also tried to force debate on a stand-alone $64.7 billion Military Construction-VA spending bill, after it was struck from the Labor-HHS measure on a point of order Wednesday in the Senate, but they were blocked on a 217-196 vote.