House Majority Leader Hoyer said today that the House might vote Thursday on a supplemental spending bill requested by President Bush to cover war costs in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of this year and the first few months of next year. House Appropriations Chairman David Obey said this afternoon said the bill would total $183.6 billion to include domestic priorities. That move, coupled with a plan to sidestep the usual committee process, left House Republicans wary. "The prospect is awfully suspicious given the fact that they refuse to go through regular order," said House Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam of Florida.
House Democratic leaders briefed lawmakers about specifics in the package in a closed meeting this afternoon. Separate votes will be taken on war funding, nonwar spending and war policy language. House Speaker Pelosi told reporters the supplemental was close to Bush's funding request, with only a few focused domestic spending provisions to help the flagging economy. Bush has threatened to veto the bill if it includes domestic spending. "I think when you see the supplemental, you will see it is a very reasoned bill within a very short distance from the president's numbers," Pelosi said. "But all we want to say is that we need [to extend] unemployment insurance and we need a GI bill of rights for education for our troops when they come home."
Pelosi held out the possibility that items that do not end up in the war supplemental could become part of a second economic stimulus package. Beyond the extension of unemployment benefits and education funding for veterans, sources said the nondefense portion of the supplemental also includes a boost above the $770 million Bush requested for international food aid, along with funding for Medicaid and other programs. White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said today Democrats should not seek to include unemployment benefits or other domestic priorities in the supplemental. She suggested that such priorities could be dealt with in a different vehicle but argued that any new stimulus should await a verdict on whether the one passed early this year has helped. "We feel strongly that the Iraq war supplemental should remain for national security needs," Perino said.
Also today, the 47 freshman Democrats in the House, led by Rep. Ron Klein of Florida, sent a letter to Obey and Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha, D-Pa., calling for a new direction in funding for the Iraq war. They asked that the supplemental bill require the Iraqi government to take more financial responsibility for reconstruction projects and training for security forces and that Iraq pay the $153 million per month the United States spends on fuel in Iraq. Democratic aides said the war policy portion of the package includes language on combat readiness, banning the building of permanent military bases in Iraq and anti-torture language.
This article appeared in the Saturday, May 10, 2008 edition of National Journal Daily.
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