WASHINGTON – Bringing to a close an extended showdown between Congress and President Bush over the Iraq war, overwhelmingly united Republicans and deeply divided Democrats passed a $120 billion emergency war spending bill Thursday that will not require U.S. combat troops to be withdrawn.
The measure, which now goes to the White House for Bush’s signature, gives the president the funding he has been seeking for more than three months without any requirement that he bring troops home and with only a handful of restrictions on what he can do in Iraq.
By codifying political steps the Iraqi government should take to reduce sectarian strife, the bill also gave Republicans linked to the unpopular war the opportunity to back legislation that puts new requirements on the Baghdad government.
And it forced vanquished anti-war Democrats – who since January have been waging a fierce campaign to use the funding bill to force a troop withdrawal – to pin their hopes on future legislation later this summer.
“Let’s be clear, those of us who oppose this war will be back, again and again and again, until this war is ended,” said Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., an outspoken war critic who voted against the bill.
In the end, just 86 Democrats in the House and 37 in the Senate voted for the full funding package, which also raises the federal minimum wage – from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour – for the first time in a decade and includes billions of dollars more for veterans’ health care, Gulf Coast hurricane recovery, children’s health care and drought relief.
With minority Republicans supplying more votes than majority Democrats, the war funding measure passed 280-142 in the House and 80-14 in the Senate.
Among those voting against the package was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Also opposing it were Democratic presidential contenders Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, who lambasted it as “another blank check,” and Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, both of whom waited until Thursday evening to come out against it.
Alone among Democratic presidential hopefuls in the Senate, Delaware’s Joseph R. Biden Jr. signaled ahead of time that he would vote for the funding measure.
“The bill we are voting on denies the American people a plan for a responsible way out of Iraq,” Biden said. “But the practical reality is that, for now, those of us who want to change course in Iraq don’t have the votes to override the president’s veto. And I believe that as long as we have troops on the front lines, we must give them the equipment and protection they need.”
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona, also voted for the measure.
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