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(s)Elections See other (s)Elections Articles Title: Democrats seek to avoid Iraq funding vote this fall Thu Apr 17, 6:44 PM ET WASHINGTON - Democrats in Congress, seeking to avoid a vote on funding the Iraq war during the fall campaign season, are considering combining President Bush's two pending requests into a single bill to be voted on this spring. House Democratic aides said Thursday that Bush's $108 billion request to finance military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through Sept. 30, the end of the 2008 budget year, may be combined with his $70 billion request to continue the war into the next president's term. "You vote one time and get the money out of the way," said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House panel responsible for the Pentagon budget. He cautioned that House leaders have not officially endorsed the idea. But votes on war spending bills inevitably generate tension among Democrats and unhappiness among their core supporters, who are strongly opposed to providing money for the war. That has leaders such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., hoping to avoid a second vote in the fall. Democrats are struggling behind the scenes to coordinate strategy for passing the war funding bill, a task made more difficult by a recent Bush threat to veto any domestic add-ons to the war spending measure that would raise its price tag above his request. Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami cautioned that Democrats have yet to unite behind a strategy on how to tackle their nettlesome Iraq funding problem and that it's not certain the strategy for a combined funding will get the green light. Democrats are poised to defy the veto threat by adding to the Iraq funding bill a measure to significantly expand education benefits for veterans. The new GI bill, sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., would greatly increase college education benefits for veterans to cover tuition and fees at most public universities. That would, on average, double college aid for veterans to about $12,000 per year at a cost of up to $4 billion a year under preliminary Congressional Budget Office estimates. The additional money for college aid for veterans has bipartisan support and could be difficult for Bush to stop in an election year. But there's little agreement among Democrats on what other items unrelated to Iraq and Afghanistan to try to add to the war funding bill. Senate Democrats are considering up to $10 billion simply for infrastructure projects such as roads, bridge repairs and school construction. At an Appropriations Committee hearing Wednesday, Democratic senators pressed a multitude of other ideas: crime-fighting grants; overseas food aid; heating subsidies; funding to combat western wildfires; and heating subsidies for the poor to name just a few. The war supplemental appropriations bill is one of the few must-pass legislative vehicle to leave the stati on this year. That has lawmakers in both parties eying it as an engine to tug funding for their pet programs into law. Republicans were disappointed that Bush accepted about $17 billion in add-ons to last year's war funding bill and the White House is determined to avoid a repeat. Meanwhile, Democrats are poised to clip almost $10 billion worth of savings from Bush's war funding request and shift the money to other purposes, including long-term purchases of next generation F-22 fighter planes, 15 C-17 cargo planes and 10 C-130 cargo planes. Another $3.5 billion would be diverted to pay for higher fuel costs. The savings to pay for the military add-ons would come from a lower estimate for operations costs, reducing purchases of light trucks for the Army, and purchases of fewer combat radios, according to documents the Pentagon gave to lawmakers. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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