Congress's Last Stand
Earlier this month, President Bush sent Congress a $70 billion emergency supplemental request to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress has indicated that it will merge that request with a separate $108 billion request that is still pending, thus setting up what is likely to be the final showdown between Bush and Congress over Iraq war funding. Taking on Bush's request first, House leaders chose to separate the war funding bill into three measures: the first to provide $162 billion to fund the wars, the second to include a number of war policy measures, and the third to fund a series of domestic priorities, including a new GI Bill that significantly increases education benefits for veterans. The White House has said it would veto any bill that included spending other than what Bush requested, "demanding a new version stripped of policy prescriptions and domestic spending, including the bill's $52 billion expansion of veterans' education benefits." Last week, the House passed only the war policy and domestic priority amendments while rejecting the war funding measure -- leaving it up to the Senate to include the money for the war in its version of the bill.
THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS: The House war funding bill failed by a 149 to 141 vote that encompassed a coalition of Republicans, who "withheld their votes in protest of Democratic handling of the measure," and a "a large bloc of antiwar Democrats," who were "unwilling to provide new money for the conflict." The war policy measure passed 227 to 196, including eight Republican votes. That amendment sets a goal of December 2009 to withdraw combat troops from Iraq, requires that the Iraqi government "match U.S. reconstruction funding dollar for dollar," and mandates that "any agreement between the United States and Iraq committing U.S. forces to be specifically authorized by Congress." In addition, troops "would get more rest between combat deployments, and every branch of government -- including the Central Intelligence Agency -- would have to abide by the Army Field Manual's guidelines on interrogation, which bans action that amount to torture." On the domestic front, the House passed provisions that would extend unemployment compensation for 13 weeks, "suspend implementation of the seven new Medicaid regulations proposed by the Bush administration," and provide funds for international food aid, levees around New Orleans, federal prisons, and the 2010 Census.
BENEFITS FOR VETERANS: Last February, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), along with a bipartisan Senate coalition, re-introduced the "21st Century GI Bill." The bill aims to dramatically expand educational benefits for returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, mirroring the original GI Bill set up after World War II. The bill essentially guarantees "a full scholarship at any in-state public university, along with a monthly housing stipend, for people who serve in the military for at least three years" at the cost of $52 billion over 10 years. The House included Webb's GI benefit as part of the domestic priority amendment to its overall war funding bill, and it passed 256 to 166. However, in order to garner support for the measure from so-called "Blue Dog" Democrats, the measure also includes a surtax to offset the GI Bill's costs. "The proposal is the most striking example so far of a Democratic refrain being heard increasingly in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail: Americans with significant financial resources need to contribute more to efforts to help those less prosperous," the New York Times observed. High income earners would pay a 0.47 percent surtax on income over $500,000. According to OMB Watch, the surtax would affect 0.3 percent of all taxpayers. However, the Senate is expected to strip the surtax, a move that Webb supports. "I don't think we need to do that for this bill," said Webb. "It's a cost of war, and nobody is proposing offsets for all the rest of the war money."
ON TO THE SENATE: The Senate is expected to begin debate on its version of the entire war supplemental today, but the Appropriations Committee has already taken the plunge. The committee "marked up a competing version of the measure, adding billions of dollars in domestic spending unrelated to the war via nearly two dozen amendments." One such amendment includes a controversial provision that would help "pave the way for undocumented agriculture workers to win legal status," aimed at helping farmers with labor shortages. Another amendment "would add $1 billion for low-income housing energy assistance." Others include a "$300 million increase in aid to Jordan," "$50 million to track unregistered sex offenders," and "a ban on the use of funds to pay contractors who avoid taxes by incorporating overseas." Bush has said he will only sign what he calls a "clean" bill, one without additional funding for other priorities. However, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), "the committee chairman and a fierce guardian of congressional prerogatives, signaled that -- even at 90 -- he was prepared to confront the White House over the added domestic spending." "The president claims that by adding money for America to this bill, we are holding money for the troops hostage. What hogwash!" Byrd exclaimed.
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On Thursday, the House "extended a helping hand" to Americans struggling in today's economy "by passing an extension of unemployment benefits for those workers who have exhausted the 26 weeks of regular benefits and are still looking for work."
MAINE:
Many rural Maine residents are seeing decreasing life spans.
DISTRICT
OF COLUMBIA: Several "health
clinics have started an initiative to convert their patients' health
records to an electronic format and share those records among
themselves and D.C.-area hospitals."
ECONOMY:
In the economic slowdown, state lawmakers are deciding "whether -- or
when -- to tap into their states' rainy day funds."
THINK
PROGRESS: Former Alabama
governor Don Siegelman: "This will make
Watergate look like child's play."
WONK
ROOM: The Bush administration
plan to protect the spotted owl from
global warming is to wait 10 more years.
SHAKESVILLE:
Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol gets the facts of the California
Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage wrong in his New York Times
column.
"All this is part and parcel of the daily grind of Washington journalism."
-- Max Boot, 4/20/08, on the Pentagon's military analyst propaganda program
VERSUS
"[B]ut to be part of a recurring meeting that is designed to shape the public opinion -- that's a strange thing for officers to be willing to do."
-- Lt. Gen. William Odom (ret.), 5/19/08
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