Senate moves to next round on war bill

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev.

WASHINGTON - A Senate deeply divided on Iraq agreed Thursday not to try to pass its own war spending bill just yet, opting instead to resolve the matter first with the House behind closed doors.

The Senate passed by voice vote a resolution that avoids the funding question and instead pledges to support the troops. The vote was primarily a procedural move needed to trigger the next official round of negotiations with the House on a final war spending bill.

President Bush dispatched his chief of staff Joshua Bolten to Capitol Hill Thursday to meet with members. Bush said time was of the essence.

The president said he respected Congress members' desire to include benchmarks in the bill for the Iraqi government to meet. "I'm optimistic we can do so," he said.

"I think we'll get a deal. We'll work through something we can all live with," Bush said in a Rose Garden news conference with outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) warned: "He's not going to have the blank check."

"There's a Congress and he has to deal with us," Reid, D-Nev., said earlier Thursday.

Congress and the White House have been at loggerheads over war funding since earlier this month when Bush vetoed a $124.2 billion bill that called for troop withdrawals to begin Oct. 1.

The House wants to fund the war in two-month installments, giving members a chance to cut off money for combat in July if conditions in Iraq do not improve.

But that approach is not expected to survive the Senate, where Democrats hold a razor-thin majority and several of them oppose limiting war funding. Bush also has threatened to veto the approach.

In a bid to expedite negotiations and avoid thorny procedural hurdles, Reid posed the noncontroversial measure Thursday as a placeholder for a future bill.

Prior to the voice vote, the Senate agreed 94-1 to advance the resolution, which specifically promises to provide troops in combat the resources they need.

Sen. Russ Feingold (news, bio, voting record) cast the lone dissenting vote; the Wisconsin Democrat favors cutting off money to end the war and has said he is concerned such a proposal could weaken that position.

A day earlier, Reid staged a series of test votes on the war that revealed an overwhelming majority of Republicans were willing to restrict foreign aid if Baghdad failed to meet certain benchmarks. Another vote showed a slim majority of Democrats — 28 out of 47 voting Wednesday — support cutting off money for combat in 2008.

Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (news, bio, voting record) said between Republicans and Democrats there is "general agreement that we must hold the Iraqi government accountable to a political process that allows for reconciliation."

But "the Senate will not cut funds for troops in the field," said McConnell, R-Ky. "And we will finish this process by Memorial Day."

Negotiations on the bill are expected to continue for days.

"To be successful, we must end the finger-pointing and instead roll up our sleeves and work together. I believe that we can — and we will," said Sen. Robert Byrd (news, bio, voting record), D-W.Va.

Source : news.yahoo.com