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Senate's Final Passage Of $122B War Supplemental In Sight - Coburn Comes Within Six Votes of Stripping Out $100 Million in Security Funding for Next Year's Presidential Nominating Conventions

By By Peter Cohn and Terry Kivlan

March 29, 2007

The Senate moved closer to approving a $122 billion war supplemental spending bill Wednesday as Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., came within six votes of stripping out $100 million in security funding for next year's presidential nominating conventions in Minneapolis and Denver.

Final passage is expected today. Senators agreed to postpone debate on more contentious proposals such as an amendment to impose beefed-up readiness standards, deployment limits and minimum rest requirements for units fighting in Iraq. Similar provisions drew a veto threat after their inclusion in the companion House bill.

Senate Majority Leader Reid endorsed the measure but, in the interest of speeding the underlying bill to passage, he convinced Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Jim Webb, D-Va., to withdraw it with the promise of debate on a separate intelligence bill after the Senate's one-week spring recess.

Several more amendments are on tap prior to a vote on final passage. With bipartisan support, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Biden wants to add $1.5 billion to buy 2,500 more mine-resistant vehicles to defend troops against improvised explosive devices.

"We have no higher obligation than to protect those we send into battle," Biden said, arguing the administration's request would delay additional vehicle delivery into next year.

Others are seeking to add money to help low-income individuals and families insulate their homes, while conservatives like Coburn and Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., hope to target domestic spending already in the bill.

Aside from roughly $20 billion added above the White House request in both the House and Senate, much of which is subject to a veto threat, President Bush has reserved his harshest language for provisions seeking the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq next year. The war of words ratcheted up Wednesday.

"The House and Senate bills have too much pork, too many conditions on our commanders, and an artificial timetable for withdrawal. And I have made it clear for weeks, if either version comes to my desk, I'm going to veto it," Bush told the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

"Now, some of them believe that by delaying funding for our troops, they can force me to accept restrictions on our commanders that I believe would make withdrawal and defeat more likely. That's not going to happen. If Congress fails to pass a bill to fund our troops on the front lines, the American people will know who to hold responsible," he added.

House Speaker Pelosi said Bush needs to "calm down" and "take a deep breath" on the matter.

"We would like to have some input from him as to what comes out of the final conference report. If he is going to stonewall us, it leaves us with very few alternatives," Reid added. "We hope that he will do what presidents have done for generations: Deal with a separate and independent branch of government."

Democrats said the additional spending was the result of Republicans' failure to pass the domestic budget last year.

But Coburn said items like the convention money do not belong in a war spending bill. "It is not an emergency that 18 months from now you are going to have national conventions," Coburn said just before his amendment to remove the money was defeated 51-45. Seven Democrats, including Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, a 2008 presidential candidate, voted for the amendment.

The allocation, which would be divided evenly between the two cities, was defended by Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn. The former St. Paul mayor said local law enforcement agencies in the Twin Cities "simply lack the resources to deal with the magnitude" of the terrorist threat in the post 9/11 era.

"I stand tall to protect Republicans from across the nation when they come to my state," added Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.

By a margin of 74-23, the Senate also rejected a Coburn amendment that would have required $4 billion in agricultural disaster aid to be offset within the existing budget of the Agriculture Department, which he said was as big as the "sixth-largest corporation in America."

Democrats defended the funding as legitimate emergency funding needed to help farmers hit by drought and other natural calamities. "This is not pork," argued Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., "It is in the continuing interest of the nation to help those family farmers."

The amendment attracted no Democratic support. It was also opposed by many farm state Republicans, including Agriculture ranking member Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, and Senate Transportation-HUD Appropriations ranking member Christopher (Kit) Bond of Missouri, who helped draft the package with Dorgan.

Also Wednesday, the Senate voted 75-22 to reauthorize for five years an expired program that helps rural counties and states pay for critical services like roads, schools and law enforcement.

The $5 billion measure drew the support of key Republicans like Senate Minority Leader McConnell and Minority Whip Lott, and is largely paid for through closing tax loopholes. The law expired last year after lawmakers could not agree how to offset its costs.

Article link: http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/congressdaily/am070329.htm#1