Iraq funds plan retooled

WASHINGTON – A week after President Bush vetoed a Democratic war spending measure that set a timeline for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq, House Democrats said Tuesday they hope to vote later this week on a second proposal that would fund the Iraq war through July, then give Congress the option of cutting off money if conditions do not improve.

Party leaders are rounding up support for the measure so the House can quickly vote on it, possibly as soon as Thursday.

Democratic leaders, who are still finishing the plan, are no longer tying war funding to a pullout of almost all U.S. combat forces, which the president has said he will never accept.

But the plan developed by Reps. David Obey, D-Wis, and John Murtha, D-Pa. – and referred to by some Democrats as the “short-leash” plan – would guarantee about $30 billion in funding only through July for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At that point, the Bush administration would be required to report on the Iraqi government’s progress on a series of benchmarks, including disarming sectarian militias and passing laws to equitably share oil wealth across the country. Congress would then take a second vote to approve further funding through the end of September.

The plan had dim prospects of surviving in the Senate, where most Democrats want to guarantee funding for troops through September and were trying to negotiate a deal with the White House.

Billions of dollars for programs and aid unrelated to the war, which had been in the $124 billion bill vetoed by the president, will no longer be included.

After a caucus meeting Tuesday during which Obey discussed the plan with House Democrats, caucus chairman Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., said the current proposal reflects public impatience with the pace of progress in Iraq.

Congressional Republicans immediately dismissed the Democratic proposal as unfairly rationing funds needed in combat and said their members would not support it.