Thread: UPDATE on Agjobs/Iraq fund bill. (Bill has been divided)â€

Senate Loads War-Funding Bill
With Domestic Spending
Associated Press
May 21, 2008 2:52 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush's request to fund U.S. combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan until his successor can take over hit a rocky patch in the Senate on Tuesday.

Democratic leaders were forced to jettison a provision to award work permits for immigrant farm labor and seasonal workers just hours after beginning debate on legislation to add domestic programs to Bush's war request.



The leader of the Senate's Democratic majority, Harry Reid, kept companion legislation to fund the war itself waiting in an attempt to gain leverage over the White House and Senate Republicans. It was not at all clear that Mr. Reid's strategy would work, given the Senate's unwieldy rules.



At the same time, the White House renewed its veto threat, reminding everyone involved that the trouble-filled path to Senate passage is but one more step in an even more hard-to-figure battle.

Mr. Reid brought up the domestic add-ons in an unusual move designed to win their adoption over opposition from the White House and Republican conservatives before turning to legislation providing $165 billion to conduct military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next spring.



The bill before the Senate would add more than $28 billion to Bush's budget request for this year and next, with almost $50 billion more for a big expansion of veterans benefits under the GI Bill from 2010-2018.



Mr. Reid faces enormous procedural headaches in getting the war funding bill and its various add-ons passed this week. Democrats have divided the war funding bill into two components: non-war add-ons and Iraq funding and policy restrictions. Mr. Reid has signaled he wants the non-war extras to get a vote before the war funding itself, but it is a high-wire strategy.


"It is going to be extremely difficult for us to get from where we are today to completing this legislation," Mr. Reid said.



Senate Republicans seemed to suggest they will let the add-ons advance to a Bush veto rather than filibustering them this week.



"Once the veto is sustained, we'll have a chance to figure out exactly how to actually enact this legislation and get the funding to the troops," Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday.



The new GI Bill and Democratic priorities like extending unemployment benefits are among the big-ticket add-ons, both of which have drawn veto threats. There's also $50 million to track down child predators, $400 million to help rural schools and $350 million to fight western wildfires, just for starters.



But the Senate's rules left some nonspending add-ons, such as immigrant labor provisions, vulnerable to being knocked out by any senator's procedural objections.



Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez objected to the immigrant farm labor provision, which had been added to the measure at a hearing last week by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, and Republican Larry Craig. It would have allowed almost 1.4 million immigrant farm workers to stay in the United States for up to five years to ease a shortage of farm workers that has left some crops rotting in the fields.



Mr. Menendez' objection also killed a measure by Sens. Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat, and Republican Judd Gregg, that would have extended an expired program to allow seasonal workers to return to the country using special visas.



A spokesman said Mr. Menendez acted because the two immigration provisions were tilted in favor of businesses while doing too little to help immigrant workers.


The White House is fighting the domestic add-ons much more vigorously than it did during last year's bruising war funding debate. Then, it accepted $17 billion in spending that Bush did not ask for as the price for getting an Iraq war funding bill that did not tie his hands on the war.

Now that it is clear that Democrats will not insist on a troop withdrawal timeline, the White House is focusing on making sure the measure does not exceed his spending request.



The Senate war funding bill combines $194.1 billion in spending over 2008-2009 to pay for the war, foreign aid, military base construction, heating subsidies and a variety of smaller items. Then there is $15.6 billion to give 13 weeks of unemployment checks to people whose benefits have run out and $51.6 billion over 10 years to improve educational and other benefits for veterans.



http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1211331 ... lenews_wsj

"$350 million to fight western wildfires,"

Translation: $350 milion to fight fires in California!!!!

If they got rid of the ILLEGAL ALIENS, they would have money to take care of their problems instead of being on the verge of bankruptcy and wanting everyone in the U.S. to pay their bills.