March 23, 2007
House OKs Spending Bill With Pullout Deadline
By a six-vote margin -- 218 to 212, the narrowest possible for passage -- the House today approved a war spending bill that includes a timeline for U.S. troops to leave Iraq by Aug. 31, 2008. CNN reports that the measure is "unlikely to pass the Senate," and President Bush has vowed to veto the bill.
Bush has also scheduled a 1:45 p.m. press conference to address the measure.
The New York Times reports that the debate was "unusually emotional." A few hours before the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., "summoned Democrats to a closed-door meeting in the Capitol basement, hoping to impress them one more time with the importance of the proposed legislation, the Democrats’ boldest step yet to try to end the war."
She convinced most of them: The Times' blog lists just 14 Democrats voting against the bill, including several liberal representatives who were on the record as saying it didn't go far enough.
Two Republicans -- Reps. Walter Jones of North Carolina and Wayne Gilchrist of Maryland -- voted for the bill.
