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Obama's request for continued funding for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan passes House
By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
05/14/09 6:13 PM EDT
With a vote of 368-60, the House on Thursday wholeheartedly approved of President Barack Obama's request for extra funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The $96.7 billion bill includes $44 billion for operations, maintenance and military personnel for the two wars and $26 billion to replace planes and equipment.
Not only did the bill easily pass, it came without any timelines or benchmarks that the Democrats have insisted upon in past supplemental requests made by the Bush Administration. House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., had included a list of conditions to be met within a year's time when he outlined the bill earlier this month, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., took them out.
Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., leader of the Out of Iraq Caucus, threw up her hands when asked why Democrats backed the bill.
"We couldn't go up against the White House," said Woolsey, who voted against the measure. "People absolutely want to give this president a year's chance."
Woolsey said members were sold on the argument that Obama inherited the war from the Bush administration and should be given the money needed to end it. Pelosi also argued to the caucus that this would be the last supplemental and that all future funding will be included in the regular appropriations bills.
And the bill included billions for additional international aide and funding for veterans, including $734.4 million to provide $500 per month for service members who have had their enlistments involuntarily extended, retroactively beginning in September 2001.
The Senate is expected to take up the bill next week. Congress will have to decide whether they want to provide funding for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison that is housing terror suspects. House members stripped the money out because they fear the prisoners will be relocated in the United States. The Senate next week will debate a $91.3 billion war supplemental bill that includes $50 million to close the prison but that funding is dependent upon the relocation plan for the prisoners.
The Senate bill includes $30 million for the review of the Bush administrations interrogation tactics used on the Guantanamo detainees.
Republicans have introduced a bill that would block the Department of Defense from moving any of the more than 200 Guantanamo detainees to the United States.
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