House Plans Simple "Yes Or No" On Iraq
House Democratic leaders said Thursday that members will vote next week on a nonbinding resolution stating opposition to President Bush's decision to send more forces into combat and voicing support for the troops.
They said House members will also get a chance to vote on a Republican alternative.
The Democratic leaders said they would take a bare-bones approach to writing the resolution — a tack intended to persuade Republicans to break ranks with the GOP and express their frustration with a war.
"This is an up-or-down vote on the policy enunciated by the president," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill. "We owe that to our constituents."
The resolution would state opposition to Mr. Bush's dispatch of 21,500 more troops to Iraq and voice support for the troops themselves and for enlarging the overall size of the Army and Marines, which the administration has proposed. It is not expected to address the question of whether Congress should limit money for the war.
The leaders described the vote as the first step of many that will be taken by Democrats to try to force an end to the nearly four-year-old war that has killed more than 3,000 U.S. troops and turned public opinion strongly against the conflict.
But Republican leaders say the debate could end up hurting U.S. forces, CBS News correspondent Susan Roberts reports.
"A nonbinding resolution is nothing more than political theater that means nothing, and I believe that it demoralizes our troops in the field," said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R–Ohio.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the House will have three full days of debate and that all members will have a chance "to articulate their view on how they want to proceed. That is important I think for the president to hear. It's important for the country to hear, and we will ensure that it is done."
The House measure in the works indicates leaders there are moving away from a Senate version backed by Democrats and several Republicans that the GOP blocked on Monday.
That resolution, by Sen. John Warner, R-Va., expresses dissatisfaction with Mr. Bush's plan to and identifies benchmarks the Iraqi government should meet. It was stalled when it fell 11 votes short of the 60 required to move the debate forward.
Frustrated that Senate leaders could not agree on debate rules for his resolution, Warner and six other Republicans told the leaders in a letter Wednesday that "the current stalemate is unacceptable to us and to the people of this country."
Read the Senate Republicans' letter on the Iraq debate
The senators warned they would attach the resolution against the troop increase to every piece of legislation they can in an effort to force a debate.
"The war in Iraq is the most pressing issue of our time. It urgently deserves the attention of the full Senate and a full debate on the Senate floor without delay," the letter said.
In addition to Warner, the other Republicans who signed the letter were Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Gordon Smith of Oregon and George Voinovich of Ohio.
Meanwhile, despite concerns by several lawmakers over the job he did in Iraq, the Senate voted Thursday to let Gen. George Casey become the new Army chief of staff.
In an 83-14 vote, senators approved Casey, who was nominated for the job by President Bush.
Casey had been America's top commander in Iraq since mid-2004 — and during his recent confirmation hearings, even some Republicans had doubts about his performance. Among them was Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who said under Casey's watch, the situation in Iraq got "progressively worse."