Senate Passes Iraq Legislation

Setting the stage for a showdown with President Bush, the Senate passed legislation Thursday calling for U.S. troops to begin being withdrawn from Iraq by Oct. 1. The 51-46 vote followed House passage of the $124 billion bill Wednesday night by a 218-208 margin.

Bush has vowed to veto and Democratic leaders said they expect the bill to arrive on his desk by Tuesday.

Two Republicans - Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) - voted in favor of the bill, while Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) voted against it. Sens. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) did not vote. Johnson has been on an extended sick leave from the Senate, while McCain and Graham were in South Carolina.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said President Bush "has put our troops in the middle of a civil war, there's no other way to say it." Reid urged the president to reconsider his veto threat. Bush is opposed to the March 31, 2008, "goal" for withdrawing troops from Iraq, as well as $25 billion in additional spending including in the bill by Democratic leaders.

Reid insisted that Democrats were not looking for a political showdown with Bush over Iraq, although both sides engaged in a heavy public-relations blitz up to and after today's vote.

"We don't want a scuffle with the president." Reid told reporters at a post-vote press conference.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she took "great pride" in the passage of the Iraq measure, and she also implored Bush to "reconsider and think about signing this bill."

"What the president doesn't like about this bill is it has accountability, something we haven't had in the last four years of this war," Pelosi added.

Reid said that if Bush vetoes the Iraq bill, Congress will not be able to finish work on another funding package until June 1 at the earliest. Bush has publicly stated that the Pentagon needs more money immediately to keep paying for combat operations in Iraq, although Democrats believe there are sufficient funds approved already to continue combat operations until mid-July.

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Democrats should not wait to send the bill to Bush for a veto but should do so immediately, after which talks can start on an Iraq funding package that the White House can accept.

"The vote has just been completed," McConnell told reporters, according to Politico's Carrie Budoff. This conference report should be sent down to the president today, by the close of business today. Not tomorrow. Not next Monday. But today. The solution to getting the money to the troops is clear: Take out the surrender date, take out the pork and send the money for the troops down to the president for the signature they desperately need."
 
 
McConnell was asked a series of questions regarding what the next bill might look like. He declined to give any sense of where he was going, or to begin negotiating with Democrats via the press.
 
"What we are going to do, after the veto is sustained, is sit down and talk," McConnell said. "Reid and I have already discussed the matter. I talked to the president about it today."

Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said he was open to including "benchmarks" to measure progress in Iraq on military, diplomatic and economic progress, as well as the added domestic funding inserted in the bill, but cannot support a withdrawal deadline or any other restrictions on Bush's ability to conduct the war.

"I don't have a problem with benchmarks," Lott said. "I don't have a problem with domestic adds."

Lott added: "I am trying to get people to think about how we get it done."