House OKs $92B For Wars, Hurricanes

(CBS/AP)  The Senate probably will give President Bush most of the money he wants for the Iraq war and Gulf Coast hurricane reconstruction while setting aside bipartisan worries about the enormous costs of both.

That's what the House did when it voted 348-71 Thursday to approve $92 billion in supplemental funds for Iraq and Afghanistan military operations and Hurricane Katrina cleanup, slightly less than what the president sought.

"Our troops need every resource available to stay safe on the ground and fight off insurgent attacks," Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert said. The bill, he added, "recognizes the needs on the front lines of the war and responds."

President Bush, in a statement, praised the House vote and urged the Senate to follow suit promptly. "This bill will give our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan tools they need to prevail in the war on terror," he said. "The legislation also provides for additional resources for the people of the Gulf Coast as they continue the work of rebuilding their lives and communities."

The House vote on the spending bill for the wars and hurricane relief came several hours after Congress pushed the ceiling on the national debt to nearly $9 trillion.

Also Thursday – in yet another move sure to disconcert fiscal conservatives - the Senate approved a $2.8 trillion budget blueprint that forsakes President Bush's tax cuts.

Despite concerns over massive budget shortfalls, House Republicans and Democrats alike were reluctant to vote against the spending bill for Iraq, Afghanistan and the Gulf Coast. Doing so could invite election-year criticism that lawmakers were shortchanging troops at war or abandoning hurricane victims.

"How do you vote against it?" said Democrat Rep. Solomon Ortiz.

But 52 Democrats, including longtime war opponents, and 19 Republicans, mostly fiscal conservatives, opposed it despite that risk.

"Not one more dime for this administration's ill-conceived, ill-advised, misguided and failed Iraq policy," said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio.

The conservative Republicans sought to lessen the impact on the deficit by cutting other programs in the budget to pay for the hurricane recovery money. Unsuccessful, they voted against the measure to make a statement.

"We're not going to support anything and everything wrapped around war funding," said Democrat Rep. Lynn Westmoreland.

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