May 25, 2007

Delving Into The Supplemental

Now that the saga of the war-funding bill is all but complete, with President Bush expected to sign the bill that Congress delivered to him last night, it's time to take a look at some of the details about the votes in Congress and the measure itself. (Information culled from AP, Bloomberg News, CongressDailyAM (subscription), Reuters, San Francisco Chronicle and the Washington Post.)

The House actually voted on two bills yesterday: One $100 billion bill strictly for war funding and one $17 billion bill that provided for additional measures -- mostly domestic spending items like Hurricane Katrina recovery, veterans' health care and drought relief -- that President Bush had initially opposed but eventually accepted as a compromise. After their passage, both bills were rolled together and sent to the Senate as a single measure.

The minimum wage increase also included in the bill will take wages from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 to in three installments of 70 cents over a period of two years.

Although benchmarks are, in fact, written into the legislation, the bill contains a clause allowing Bush to waive any of the benchmarks that he sees fit if the Iraqis do not comply. The president's first report to Congress on benchmark progress will be July 15.

There are 18 total benchmarks linking the Iraqi's ability to meet particular goals with the delivery of economic aid from the United States.

Senate Democrats were divided over the bill, with 37 supporting and 10 opposing. Republicans were nearly unanimous in their support.

Some House Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey of Wisconsin, voted against the main bill but for the domestic spending provisions. The funding bill passed 280-142; the secondary bill passed 348-73.

Of the four Democratic senators in the race for the White House, three (Hillary Rodham Clinton, Christopher Dodd and Barack Obama) voted agasint the measure. Joseph Biden voted for it. The overall Senate vote was 80-14.

The new funding allocations bring the total allocation of funds of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan above $565 billion, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Posted at 11:50 AM
Posted to: Congress, Iraq, Middle East
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