Reid To Bring Feingold Redeployment Amendment Up For A Vote

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)announced on the Senate floor earlier today that he will try to force a vote on an amendment by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) calling for an pullout of U.S. forces from Iraq starting in four months. Funding for combat operations, and a complete withdrawal of American forces, with a couple of exceptions, would take place by March 31, 2008.

There is no timetable yet for what day Reid will attempt to bring a Feingold proposal up for a vote, but it's an interesting strategy to try to attach this to a the underlying Water Resources Development Act, which both sides want to see enacted. Passage of the Feingold amendment, and another Iraq-related amendment by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Reid regulating the length of deployments for soldiers and marines. The second proposal is essentially the same as the Senate-passed version of the Iraq funding bill but allows President Bush to waive the timelines for beginning and completing a pullout.

Both sides see these as "test votes," and both sides know they will not get the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

Feingold, for his part, was very happy to see his proposal get a vote, or a Republican filibuster if it comes to that. “I appreciate the Majority Leader’s work to bring up the Feingold-Reid legislation for a vote," Feingold said in a statement released by his office. "The American people deserve to have the Senate go on record about whether or not it wants to end our misguided mission in Iraq and safely redeploy our brave troops."