Senate approval paves way for more Iraq spending
WASHINGTON -- Congress gave final approval yesterday to $87.5 billion in new spending for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, providing President Bush largely what he wanted for postwar activities despite efforts by some lawmakers to place restrictions on the funding.
A voice vote in the Senate spared lawmakers from going on the record on the supplemental funding bill, which opinion polls indicated was disliked by a majority of Americans. Bush is expected to sign the bill, which was approved by the House last week. The amount is in addition to the $79 billion Congress approved in April for war-related activities and other programs.
Opponents and advocates of the bill invoked the bloody week in Iraq as they debated whether to spend another $65.7 billion for military operations and $21.8 billion mostly for reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the danger facing US troops every day underscores the need for additional spending.
"One thing is very clear, as the president said time and time again: We will not walk away from Iraq. We will not withdraw our forces from Iraq, we will not leave the Iraqi people in chaos, and we will not create a vacuum for terrorist groups to fill," Stevens said.
Senator Ernest Hollings, Democrat of South Carolina, opposed the additional funding, saying, "You're going to have `Operation Meat Grinder' continue, and it's our meat." Hollings, who is retiring at the end of his term, said he regrets having voted for the resolution in October 2002 that authorized the war against Iraq.
"We were misled," Hollings told his colleagues. In an interview later, he said the resolution was "an absolute mistake. Nobody should have voted for it."
The three Democratic presidential candidates in the Senate, John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, John Edwards of North Carolina, and Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, have all been critical of Bush's Iraq strategy, but none has said he regrets his decision to authorize force against Iraq. Representative Richard A. Gephardt, Democrat of Missouri, has also stood by his vote for the resolution, despite his recent assaults on Bush's Iraq policy. Representative Dennis Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, has been a consistent opponent of the Iraq war.
Hollings said the nation should either pull out of Iraq or increase its force to 200,000 to 250,000 troops, up from the current level of 130,000, because it is "half a haircut. We don't have enough in there to stop the killing."
The measure includes some changes meant to help reservists, who are facing deployments lasting a year. Congress amended Bush's request to provide health care assistance to reservists, and relieve wounded soldiers of the daily cost of meals while they are in the hospital.
Lawmakers failed, however, in an effort to make some of the $18.6 billion for Iraqi reconstruction in the form of loans. The Senate backed the idea, but the House did not go along.
Stevens and other Republicans said they do not expect the administration to come back next year with another supplemental spending request. The cost of postwar Iraq will probably be included in the general defense budget, and was only separated out this year because of Democratic demands, Stevens said. "It's obviously politically motivated," he said.
