In the News

By ANNE FLAHERTY
The Associated Press

House Democrats confidently predicted they can pass a bill to end the Iraq war before September 2008, even as their counterparts in the Senate struggle just to get their war debate off the ground.
The House Appropriations Committee planned to vote Thursday on a $124 billion spending bill that includes $95.5 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The measure was expected to pass narrowly mostly along party lines with a few Democratic defectors paving the way for a floor vote next week.

The bill has been the first major test of unity among Democrats since they took control of Congress in January. Party members agree the war should end, but have been deeply divided over how far to go to force President Bush's hand.

"The members are thinking about the need for unity and the need to make sure the president doesn't go unchecked," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., a chief deputy whip.

Members likely will not be allowed to offer amendments to the bill. However, prior to the final vote, chairman Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., was expected to add a provision to delay Pentagon plans to close Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2011.

But prospects of the bill becoming law are dim. In addition to a White House veto threat and overwhelming GOP opposition to the bill, the legislation is unlikely to survive in the Senate, where Democrats have been reluctant to adopt a firm timetable to end the war.

Senate Democrats have opted instead to back softer legislation that would identify March 2008 as a goal for troops to be out of Iraq.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Democratic presidential candidate, said in a New York Times interview that if elected she would maintain a scaled-down American military force in Iraq that would stay off the streets in Baghdad and no longer would try to protect Iraqis from sectarian violence.

She cited "remaining vital national security interests" for a continued deployment of U.S. troops in Iraq aimed at fighting al-Qaida, deterring Iran, protecting Kurds and possibly supporting the Iraqi military, the newspaper reported Wednesday night on its Web site.

She said her plan was consistent with the Senate resolution, saying it called for "a limited number" of troops to stay in Iraq to protect the U.S. Embassy and other personnel, train and equip Iraqi forces and conduct "targeted counterterrorism operations."

The Senate voted 89-9 on Wednesday to begin consideration of the measure, but debate quickly became hamstrung again after Republicans and Democrats failed to agree on the parameters for a debate.

Aides said leaders were waiting to see a proposal by Sen. John Warner, R-Va. According to a draft, Warner's resolution would outline benchmarks for the Iraqi government and call for an assessment of Iraqi security forces.

Warner's resolution stops short of calling for troops to leave Iraq by any particular date.

While the House bill is unlikely to sail through unchecked, Democrats say its passage even if by a slim majority would be a loud message to the president to end the war. Its passage also would be a political victory for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who has struggled in trying to unify party members on the war.

Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., who had been skeptical of earlier drafts of the war spending bill, said he is now on board and believes Democratic defections will be few.

Pelosi was trying to line up votes from party liberals who want troops out of Iraq sooner than the 2008 deadline, as well as more conservative Democrats who are concerned the bill would micromanage the war.

Rep. Barbara Lee, a member of the Appropriations Committee, has not said whether she will vote in favor of the bill. As co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, Lee, D-Calif., supports an alternative proposal that would cut funding for all military operations.

In a statement Tuesday, Lee called the supplemental proposal a step forward.

"Still, too many of our troops are dying in an occupation that needs to end sooner rather than later, and I will continue to push for enforceable timelines and to protect our troops and to fully fund their safe and orderly withdrawal from Iraq at the earliest practicable date."

But other members of the Progressive Caucus said they would support the measure once it is on the floor.

"I think people have to take a close look at the best way to get out of Iraq," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. "I think this is the best framework to do that."

Rep. C.W. Bill Young, the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee, said he opposed the spending legislation because of the timetable to end the war.

But Young was not expected to oppose Obey's suggestion to delay the closing of Walter Reed.