nevadamedic
05-22-2007, 04:18 PM
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi will present a plan to House Democrats for a war funding bill that won't include a timeline for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq but will feature benchmarks with consequences, according to Democratic leadership aides.
The bill also would raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 per hour from $5.15 per hour, and fund other domestic spending programs, which were still being negotiated.
White House spokesman Tony Snow declined to comment on items that might be in the proposed bill.
"I don't want to say yes or no to any of these things. I'm just going to say, 'No comment,' " Snow said.
A senior administration official added, "It is premature to say that the White House has agreed to any provisions of the Iraq funding bill."
The legislation would provide more than $90 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through September 30, the end of the fiscal year.
Leadership aides said the benchmarks would be tied to Iraq reconstruction aid and would require President Bush to present to Congress numerous reports before August.
They said Democrats won't give up on a deadline for pulling troops out of Iraq, hoping to write language into defense appropriations and defense authorization bills over the summer.
In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said similar legislation being written there will fund the war through September.
"And then, as I've indicated, the defense authorization, we're going to start right where we've left off with this bill, continuing our push to change direction in the war in Iraq."
Republican senators, who had objected to timelines and deadlines, sounded optimistic that a compromise would be reached.
They said they understood it to be similar to a bill written by Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia, which included benchmarks tied to economic aid to Iraq and which passed 52-44 last week. (The vote was more than a majority but less than the 60 needed to advance under the rules in effect.)
That bill granted Bush the authority to waive any penalties if the Iraqis did not meet benchmarks.
"Hopefully, we will get through this process before Memorial Day," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky. "I know that's been the desire certainly of the majority leader, to finish the bill, to get the bill to the president for signature without a 'surrender date.' I think that is the direction in which we are headed."
Democrats have said they wanted to get Bush a bill that he could sign by the Memorial Day weekend. The vote in the House of Representatives could come as late as Friday, the day the weekend starts.
Bush vetoed a bill last month that included a timetable for withdrawing troops. On Friday, both White House officials and lawmakers left negotiations saying they were "disappointed" that they couldn't agree on a compromise.
Bush also objected to portions of the bill that would have provided domestic funding for items such as rebuilding following Hurricane Katrina.
Congressional Democrats offered White House negotiators a bill with a withdrawal timeline on Friday and said the timeline allowed Bush to waive any deadlines.
But White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten said he rejected that because timelines "send exactly the wrong signal."
Democrats said they then offered to drop billions of dollars in domestic spending from the bill but the president's negotiators wouldn't budge.
Legislative aides said Democrats expect that they will lose support of liberal members of their caucus who are holding out for language that would assure a troop withdrawal, but they also expect enough Republicans to support the bill to assure passage.
A senior Democratic senator said late last week the last-minute attempts by Democrats to get a withdrawal timeline was "political foreplay."
A Democratic leadership source told CNN some two months ago that Democratic leaders knew they would have to send the president a war funding bill without a timeline, and that would likely mean a bill with significant Democratic defections and GOP support.
The maneuvering over the past several weeks has been a Democratic attempt to show their anti-war base that party leaders were trying until the 11th hour to stand up to the president, the source said.
CNN's Dana Bash, Andrea Koppel and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/22/war.funding/index.html
How do you guys feel about this? I also like the idea of the Federal Minimum wage being moved up since the cost of living right now is outrageous.
The bill also would raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 per hour from $5.15 per hour, and fund other domestic spending programs, which were still being negotiated.
White House spokesman Tony Snow declined to comment on items that might be in the proposed bill.
"I don't want to say yes or no to any of these things. I'm just going to say, 'No comment,' " Snow said.
A senior administration official added, "It is premature to say that the White House has agreed to any provisions of the Iraq funding bill."
The legislation would provide more than $90 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through September 30, the end of the fiscal year.
Leadership aides said the benchmarks would be tied to Iraq reconstruction aid and would require President Bush to present to Congress numerous reports before August.
They said Democrats won't give up on a deadline for pulling troops out of Iraq, hoping to write language into defense appropriations and defense authorization bills over the summer.
In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said similar legislation being written there will fund the war through September.
"And then, as I've indicated, the defense authorization, we're going to start right where we've left off with this bill, continuing our push to change direction in the war in Iraq."
Republican senators, who had objected to timelines and deadlines, sounded optimistic that a compromise would be reached.
They said they understood it to be similar to a bill written by Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia, which included benchmarks tied to economic aid to Iraq and which passed 52-44 last week. (The vote was more than a majority but less than the 60 needed to advance under the rules in effect.)
That bill granted Bush the authority to waive any penalties if the Iraqis did not meet benchmarks.
"Hopefully, we will get through this process before Memorial Day," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky. "I know that's been the desire certainly of the majority leader, to finish the bill, to get the bill to the president for signature without a 'surrender date.' I think that is the direction in which we are headed."
Democrats have said they wanted to get Bush a bill that he could sign by the Memorial Day weekend. The vote in the House of Representatives could come as late as Friday, the day the weekend starts.
Bush vetoed a bill last month that included a timetable for withdrawing troops. On Friday, both White House officials and lawmakers left negotiations saying they were "disappointed" that they couldn't agree on a compromise.
Bush also objected to portions of the bill that would have provided domestic funding for items such as rebuilding following Hurricane Katrina.
Congressional Democrats offered White House negotiators a bill with a withdrawal timeline on Friday and said the timeline allowed Bush to waive any deadlines.
But White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten said he rejected that because timelines "send exactly the wrong signal."
Democrats said they then offered to drop billions of dollars in domestic spending from the bill but the president's negotiators wouldn't budge.
Legislative aides said Democrats expect that they will lose support of liberal members of their caucus who are holding out for language that would assure a troop withdrawal, but they also expect enough Republicans to support the bill to assure passage.
A senior Democratic senator said late last week the last-minute attempts by Democrats to get a withdrawal timeline was "political foreplay."
A Democratic leadership source told CNN some two months ago that Democratic leaders knew they would have to send the president a war funding bill without a timeline, and that would likely mean a bill with significant Democratic defections and GOP support.
The maneuvering over the past several weeks has been a Democratic attempt to show their anti-war base that party leaders were trying until the 11th hour to stand up to the president, the source said.
CNN's Dana Bash, Andrea Koppel and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/22/war.funding/index.html
How do you guys feel about this? I also like the idea of the Federal Minimum wage being moved up since the cost of living right now is outrageous.