House passes compromise version of wartime supplemental

After partisan jockeying over $5 billion for the International Monetary Fund, the House Tuesday approved a $106 billion fiscal 2009 supplemental appropriations conference report for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as other priorities.

The conference report was approved, 226-202, with five Republicans voting in favor and 32 voting against. The supplemental goes to the Senate. Reps. Anh (Joseph) Cao, R-La., Peter King, R-N.Y., Mark Kirk, R-Ill., Candice Miller, R-Mich., and John McHugh, R-N.Y., all voted for the report. McHugh is President Obama's nominee to be Army secretary.

"Do not use this [IMF funding] ... as a reason to say I can't for what 80 percent of what this bill does -- support those young men and women, and some not so young, in the defense of freedom and the furtherance of our security," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., beseeched Republicans before the vote. "This is a vote for America and its troops."

War funding bills are typically an easy "yes" vote for Republicans, but GOP leaders urged their members to oppose the measure over the IMF funding, which they claim does not belong in a war funding bill. The $5 billion would finance up to $108 billion in IMF lending activity.

"What should be a clean military funding bill has become the means for the president's promise to provide more foreign aid to the IMF," Armed Services Committee ranking member Howard (Buck) McKeon, R-Calif., said before the vote. "Those funds will eventually make their way to countries that are less than friendly to the United States at the expense of programs to support our troops."

Appropriations Committee ranking member Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., said, "I strongly support our troops, but I cannot, and will not, support an international bailout for hostile regimes disguised as a troop funding bill."

Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., was skeptical of Republican opposition to the measure over the IMF funding.

"In 1999, the last time we voted on [IMF aid], funding was attached to the transportation spending bill and 162 Republicans voted for it," Obey said. "They didn't seem to have any problem at that time, and I find it interesting that today with a different president, that they do."

Republicans criticized the package over Democratic leaders' decision not to include language in the Senate-passed version prohibiting the release of detainee mistreatment photos.

Democratic leaders dropped the provision to secure the vote of at least 18 anti-war Democrats, since they could not count on Republicans to support the package. Many liberal Democrats opposed the Senate provision because they believe it would weaken government transparency law.

The House passed its version of the supplemental -- without IMF funding -- in mid-May 368-60, with 168 Republicans voting in favor of it. The bloc of Republicans favoring the bill offset 51 anti-war Democrats who opposed it. Reps. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., Jerry Costello, D-Ill., Edward Markey, D-Mass., Doris Matsui, D-Calif., James Oberstar, D-Minn., and Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., all voted "yes" after voting "no" in May.

Republicans raised concerns about the bill for failing to include a provision barring the release of alleged terrorists being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after the end of fiscal 2009, Sept. 30.

The bill includes language stipulating that through the end of the fiscal year, Guantanamo detainees may be brought to the United States for trial, but not for permanent detention. Both the House- and Senate-passed bills had stricter restrictions on bringing detainees to the United States, but the White House sought a more relaxed provision.

The conference report -- a compromise approved last week by House and Senate negotiators -- includes $79.9 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; $10.4 billion for the State Department and foreign operations, and $7.7 billion to respond to the H1N1 flu pandemic.

The bill also includes $1 billion for the first year of a program that would give drivers a voucher for up to $4,500 to buy or lease a fuel-efficient car if they trade in a less-efficient vehicle.

But the "cash-for-clunkers" provision could run into trouble in the Senate, where Senate Budget Committee ranking member Judd Gregg, R-N.H., expects to raise a point of order against it. Under Senate rules, Senators may raise points of order against provisions of a conference report that were not in the bill passed by either chamber. Senate Republicans could raise a point of order to strike the language, which would take 60 votes to waive.

Gregg and others have decried the clunkers provision and said it adds to the deficit.

Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who has sponsored a more environmentally friendly clunkers bill, said she is not sure how she will vote on the point of order.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has said that unless he and others get a more specific pledge from Obama to classify the pictures, as well as the promise of a timely stand-alone vote on the issue from Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., they might oppose the conference report.

Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have suggested a compromise will be reached.

After consideration of the supplemental, the House began debating the $64.4 billion fiscal 2010 Commerce-Justice-Science spending bill. The measure is less than the $64.6 billion sought by Obama, but more than the $57.7 billion provided in fiscal 2009.

Before the debate began, Hoyer warned against Republicans trying to "filibuster by amendment" on spending bills. Republicans sought to offer 102 of 127 amendments to the C-J-S bill in response to Democratic leaders forcing them to submit even germane modifications to amendments within a limited amount of time, also known as a pre-printing requirement.

If that pattern were to continue with other appropriations bills, Hoyer said, it would be unlikely that the House could achieve initial passage of the 12 spending bills by the August break, as he has indicated is the goal. Hoyer warned that could put leaders in the position "at the end of the process of bundling all of these together and doing an omnibus."

Billy House and Dan Friedman contributed to this report.