House Democrats plan vote on Iraq next week

WASHINGTON -- House Democratic leaders said yesterday that members will vote next week on a resolution voicing support for US troops but opposing President Bush's decision to send more forces into combat.

House members will also get a chance to vote on a Republican alternative, they said.

The leaders described the vote as the first step of many Democrats will take to try to force an end to the nearly four-year-old war that has killed more than 3,000 US troops and turned public opinion against the conflict.

At a closed-door meeting of Democrats, leaders reassured lawmakers that next week's vote would not be the last word, participants said. Representative John P. Murtha, Democrat of Pennsylvania and chairman of a subcommittee that oversees defense funding, told members he will try to limit funding for the deployment of troops in an upcoming bill unless high readiness standards are met.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, told the caucus the goal was to end the war, according to participants in the meeting, as she and other leaders assured the rank and file the nonbinding measure was only the first step.

The House Republican leader, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, told reporters the "majority of Republicans support the president and his goal of winning in Iraq." But he also acknowledged opposition within GOP ranks to Bush's decision to add troops, saying some lawmakers will vote in favor of the Democratic measure .

House majority leader Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland, said: "This debate will go forward and the American people will have their representatives for three days to articulate their view on how they want to proceed. That is important, I think, for the president to hear. It's important for the country to hear, and we will ensure that it is done."

The Democratic leaders said they would take a bare-bones approach to writing the resolution -- a tack intended to persuade Republicans to break ranks with the GOP and express their frustration with the war.

The resolution would state opposition to Bush's dispatch of 21,500 more troops to Iraq and voice support for the troops themselves and for enlarging the overall size of the Army and Marines, which the administration has proposed.

It is not expected to address the question of whether Congress should limit money for the war.

"This is an up-or-down vote on the policy enunciated by the president," said Representative Rahm Emanuel, Democrat of Illinois. "We owe that to our constituents."

The House measure in the works indicates leaders there are moving away from the Senate version backed by Democrats and several Republicans that the GOP blocked Monday.

That resolution, by Senator John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, expressed dissatisfaction with Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq and identified benchmarks the Iraqi government should meet.

It stalled when it fell 11 votes short of the 60 required to move the debate forward.

A group of Senate Republicans said Wednesday that they would continue pushing for the Iraq resolution that stalled in the Senate earlier in the week.