Congress, White House Near Agreement on Troop Funding Bill

It appears the Democratic controlled Congress will be the first to 'blink' on the issue of funding for U.S. operations in Iraq.

Fearing another Bush veto, Congress finally decided to drop their request for a troop withdrawal time-line as a requirement for further funding of troop activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Several unnamed officials said this bill will cost roughly $120 billion with approximately $8 billion earmarked for Democrat domestic funding issues. The domestic funding, which was initially resisted by the White House, will include aid for victims of hurricane Katrina and aid for farmers hurt by drought.

After an intense struggle between the White House and Congress over much needed troop funding, Congressional leaders hope this compromise bill reaches the President's desk by Friday so this bill can be enacted before the Memorial Day weekend.

Despite the concession, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), D-Nev., told reporters that the legislation would be the first war-funding bill sent to Bush since the U.S. invasion of Iraq "where he won't get a blank check."

Senate leader Reid and other Democrats quickly pointed to a provision in this bill that calls for setting standards the Iraqi government must reach in developing a more democratic country. U.S. financial aid would be tied to the Iraqi government meeting these set standards, but this bill also allows President Bush to continue giving financial aid to Iraq regardless of how well the country performs on reaching a more democratic society.

Sen. Reid said Democrats are still going to work towards developing a different defense bill later this summer that addresses what the American people desire-a change of direction in the United States involvement in Iraq.

Republicans are claiming victory over the troop funding issue because they claim the Democrats backed down on their demand for a troop withdrawal time-line.

Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, added, "Democrats have finally conceded defeat in their effort to include mandatory surrender dates in a funding bill for the troops, so forward progress has been made for the first time in this four-month process."

Democrats are also claiming victory by saying Republicans paid a price by seeing the Democrats wring out money for spending on domestic issues that should have be going to the troops.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, officials said the final details of this bill still remain in flux. These officials said House leader Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, intends to present this bill to her rank and file at a meeting later this evening.

This bill will give President Bush approximately $17 billion more than he originally requestd for funding the troops. $9 billion of this additional money will go towards funding defense related items and veteran health-care. The remaining $8 billion is earmarked for the Democrats domestic items.

The bill would also include the first increase in the federal minimum wage in more than a decade. Both the House and Senate have passed measures raising the current level of $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour in three separate 70-cent increases over 26 months. Those measures included modest tax breaks, mainly aimed at helping businesses that hire low-skilled or handicapped workers.

With the possibility of an agreement nearing, Reid and Pelosi also toyed with the idea of splitting this bill into two separate pieces. One bill would have been for troop funding only, and the other bill would have been for domestic funding issues.

Under this scenario, antiwar House Democrats would have been able to vote against troop funding while being able to vote for funding of domestic issues. The troop funding bill would have still passed the House based on strong Republican voting, but it would have also allowed anti-war advocates to show their voters they still voted against additional troop funding.

If this scenario did play out, Sen. Reid would have had to merge both bills in the Senate. This would have left Senate anti-war critics without luxury of voting against troop funding while voting for domestic funding.

The Democrats have been back in Congressional power for only a few months, but the Iraq war has been able to dominate the new Democratic Congressional agenda.

Congress has been trying to pressure President Bush into changing the course in Iraq, but it now appears the President still keeps the upper hand in a war that is becoming more and more unpopular as the days pass.

Read more about this latest troop funding measure at Yahoo News