Defiant House votes for partial war funding

WASHINGTON -- The House last night pushed through its second plan to fund the Iraq war and reshape war policy, approving legislation that would provide partial funding for military operations but hold back most of the money until President Bush reports on the war's progress in July.

Bush promised to veto the measure, but he struck a more conciliatory tone yesterday, saying he was open to including political and security benchmarks for the Iraqi government in a final compromise on war-funding legislation.

Occurring only a week after the Democrats' first war-funding bill was vetoed, the House's 221- 205 vote defied not only the fresh veto threat but also opposition from Democrats in the Senate.

"The president has brought us to this point by vetoing the first Iraq Accountability Act and refusing to pay for this war responsibly," declared House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California. "He has grown accustomed to the free hand on Iraq he had before Jan. 4. Those days are over."

The final tally came just an hour after antiwar Democrats mustered 171 votes for far tougher legislation that would all but end US military involvement in Iraq within nine months. The 255- 171 vote against that measure meant that nowhere close to a majority backed it, but the fact that 169 Democrats and two Republicans voted for it surprised opponents and proponents alike.

"I didn't think I was going to get anywhere near 171 votes," said Representative James P. McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, the withdrawal bill's chief author. "This is proof that the United States Congress is getting closer to where the American people already are."

All the members of the Massachusetts delegation in the House voted in favor of the bill to provide funds in installments.

The two votes culminated 24 hours of maneuvering and intrigue.

On Wednesday night, Pelosi offered antiwar liberals a withdrawal vote after it became clear that she could lose the vote on the war-funding bill without that concession.

White House political adviser Karl Rove, furious that Republican moderates had divulged a confrontational meeting they had on Tuesday with Bush on the war, started yesterday with an angry conversation with the meeting's organizer, Representative Mark Steven Kirk, Republican of Illinois, according to several GOP lawmakers.

Dan Meyer, the White House's chief lobbyist, called the other participants to express the administration's unhappiness.

But Bush said he had directed his chief of staff, Joshua B. Bolten, to work with congressional leaders on a plan to break the impasse.

"One message I have heard from people from both parties is that the idea of benchmarks makes sense. And I agree," Bush said at a Pentagon news briefing after he met with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates; Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and other military and civilian leaders.

In a prime time speech to the nation in January, Bush laid out the same benchmarks that the Democrats have been including in their war-funding measures. Vice President Dick Cheney, in Baghdad yesterday, scorned the Democrats' demand that Bush's benchmarks be linked to penalties if the Iraqis do not meet them, dismissing that as "Washington talk" irrelevant to reality.

But the president explicitly empowered Bolten "to find common ground on benchmarks," instructions that members of both parties took as a clear sign that Bush is ready to compromise.

"He's come off his pedestal," said Representative John Murtha, Democrat of Pennsylvania, and chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees defense funding.

The heated meeting between the GOP moderates and Bush continued to reverberate on Capitol Hill yesterday, after several Republican conservatives told reporters that they shared the moderates' fears that the war is wrecking the party. "There is no liberal-conservative divide on Iraq," said one House GOP conservative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of angering the White House further.

The meeting's confrontational tone "was reflective of where the whole [Republican] conference is," said Representative Ray LaHood, Republican of Illinois, a meeting participant.

But House Republicans mostly held together against the war-funding bill, saying it was overly complex and precipitous. Only two Republicans voted for it. The bill would divide the war funding into two installments.

The first, $43 billion, would be released immediately, with new standards for resting, training, and equipping troops and a slate of benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet. Bush would be required to submit to Congress by July 13 three reports -- on Iraqi progress in relation to the benchmarks, on which of the goals had been met, and on how many Iraqi combat units are ready to operate on their own.

About 10 days later, the House would vote again, first on whether to cut off funding for further combat in Iraq and then on releasing the remaining $53 billion.

The White House issued a formal veto threat yesterday, saying the bill would deny resources the military needs now, encroach on the constitutional prerogatives of the commander in chief, and set up "a fast-track vote in July on an arbitrary withdrawal date."

House minority leader John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, declared that "one can only describe today's proceedings as grossly negligent."

Senate Democratic leaders remain deeply skeptical of the House's short-term funding approach, but they have yet to divulge an approach of their own. Senate majority leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, asserted yesterday that "there is not a thing off the table" and cited "150 scenarios" currently making the rounds among lawmakers.

Bush was able to sustain his veto of the first war-funding bill last week, when the House upheld his rejection of a troop withdrawal timetable.

Pelosi said the president's remarks on setting goals for Iraq were meaningless unless he was willing to impose consequences. "The president has long said he supports benchmarks. What he fails to accept is accountability for failing to meet those benchmarks," she said.

Bush and key lawmakers have stepped up expressions of frustration with the government in Baghdad in recent weeks, and Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh spent his day appealing for patience in a series of meetings with key senators.

Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.