Bush proposes talks on war funding impasse
During remarks to members of the American Legion, Bush repeated his threat to veto any bill that includes a timeline for U.S. troops to leave the region. He said time is running out.
“Instead of approving that vital funding, the Democratic leadership has spent the past 64 days on legislation that would undercut our troops,” Bush said. “The longer Congress delays, the worse the impact will be for our troops.” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters the talks next week would be discussions and “not a negotiation,” while Senate Democrats said troops deserved a better strategy — not “rhetoric.”
Both the House and Senate have attached language to legislation calling for U.S. combat troops to leave Iraq in 2008 — the House by the end of August, the Senate by March of that year.
War critics including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid indicated they weren’t backing down Tuesday by introducing separate legislation aimed at denying funding for the war after March 2008. “American troops are putting their lives at risk every day,” Reid said. “They deserve a strategy worthy of their sacrifices, not the political rhetoric the president’s offering, which he again offered today.”
The president is “offering the same failed strategy that does not work,” he said.
Bush said that the Pentagon will have to send to Congress a reprogramming bill that would transfer $1.6 billion from other accounts to cover funding for the war.
Last week, Bush told reporters that without congressional action, the military would begin running short of funds by mid-April. But the bipartisan Congressional Research Service has concluded that the military will have the money to continue fighting through July without additional funding.
By mid-May, Bush said, if funding is not law, problems would grow “more acute,” and would include the curtailing of training for active duty forces.
The separate Reid legislation, also sponsored by strong Democratic war critic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, would permit spending in only three areas: fighting al Qaeda, training Iraqis and protecting the U.S. Embassy and personnel. The bill is not expected to pass.
At the Pentagon, the Army has warned program managers to prepare for a possible money crunch if Bush vetoes an emergency war spending bill that calls for the eventual withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq. Analysts say Pentagon staff will be the first to face cuts. The Army Budget Office warned in a memo sent Monday that a resolution to the standoff between the White House and Capitol Hill “is doubtful before the end of April.”
As the funding fight continued, war planners were moving forward. On Monday, CNN learned that U.S. commanders in Iraq have asked the Pentagon to extend tours of duty for about 15,000 troops in the war zone by up to four months as part of the U.S. troop “surge” in Iraq that began in January. ————-Al-Maliki: ‘No need’ for timetable
Echoing Bush’s stance, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday rejected timetables to determine “departure of international forces” from Iraq. Al-Maliki told reporters during his visit to Japan that there is progress “on the security issue day by day because we are having security responsibility handed over to us continuously. We see no need for a withdrawal timetable because we are working as fast as we can.”
Bombers in Iraq on Tuesday struck a college district and a secondary school in Baghdad and a police recruiting center in Diyala province killing at least 17 people, local authorities told CNN.