Republican Gambit On The House Floor Leads To Troop Funds Being Shot Down

Fri. May 16, 2008


The House Thursday voted down providing $162.5 billion to fund the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of FY08 and part of FY09 after 132 Republicans voted present and most Democrats, who oppose the war, voted against the funding, resulting in an unusual 149-141 vote.

Democratic leaders devised a strategy that included splitting the package into three separate amendments on which the House would take three separate votes.

The first amendment consisted of the war money. It included $96.6 billion to fund the war for the rest of FY08, which ends Sept. 30, and $65.9 billion for part of FY09.

House Democratic leaders expected the war funding amendment to pass with a majority of Republican support, since many Democrats oppose the war and see cutting off funding as a way to register their opposition.

However, in a procedural gambit, 132 Republicans voted present. The Republican move meant that, in order to pass the war funding, a majority of Democrats would have to support the amendment.

Among those 145 Democrats who voted against the war funding were House Speaker Pelosi and House Appropriations Chairman David Obey. The number of Democrats that voted for the funding totaled 85. They were joined by 56 Republicans.

After the vote, Republican and Democratic leaders traded charges of political gamesmanship in dueling press conferences.

"The Republicans chose to continue to play political games," said Majority Leader Hoyer, who voted for the funding. "That's unfortunate. As a result, 132 Republicans were essentially AWOL when it came time to give the troops the funding."

Obey called the Republicans' tactic a "cutesy-pie gimmick to try to screw up the process."

The gambit came as Republican leaders try to come out from under the cloud of Tuesday's special election loss in Mississippi and urged their members to unite behind an election agenda they began to roll out this week.

Minority Leader Boehner, Minority Whip Blunt and a roomful of GOP lawmakers said that they made the move to expose the cynicism of Democratic leaders offering up a bill that was widely recognized as never having a chance of becoming law. Nevertheless, they denied playing games with procedural matters.

Boehner argued that the three-pronged procedural strategy used by Democrats was designed to draw a presidential veto and delay the troop-funding vote.

"The sooner we blew up this process, the sooner we can get a clean troop funding bill to the president's desk that he can sign," said Boehner. "We think we can speed this process up by exposing the cynicism that was brought to the floor today."

The move gave anti-war Democrats what they have been hoping for 18 months, to kill war funding, if in name only. The Senate is expected to simply attach the war funding back to the bill before returning it to the House with other changes.

Democratic aides said that members of the Out of Iraq Caucus were seen on the floor joking about the war finally being over and there was talk among staff of bringing a sign-up sheet for the Caucus to the floor for those on the other side of the aisle.

"Only those (Republican) bastards are smart enough to do something like this," said an aide to one liberal Democrat. "It's pointless but hilarious. You gotta give these guys credit. They sure know how to make it interesting."

The House passed two other amendments as part of the supplemental package. One included a raft of war policy proposals regarding redeployment language. That amendment passed 227-196, with most Democrats voting in favor of the provision.

The third amendment includes an increase of veterans' education benefits. The provision, estimated to cost more than $51 billion over 10 years, will be offset by a 0.5 percent tax on individuals with gross income of more than $500,000 and couples with income more than $1 million.

The provision was offset in order to appease the Blue Dog Coalition.

The fate of such a tax increase in the Senate is unclear. The Senate Appropriations Committee passed its version of the supplemental Thursday.

The third amendment of the package, approved 256-166, includes an extension of unemployment insurance benefits.

Republican leaders have voiced concerns about the supplemental because it bypassed the House Appropriations Committee and they have argued that it would raise taxes on small businesses to pay for veterans' benefits. President Bush has threatened veto the bill.

by Humberto Sanchez and Christian Bourge, with Megan Scully contributing

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