A controversial measure that would have choked off funding for US
military operations in
Iraq after March
31, 2008 was blocked by the US Senate on Wednesday.
The legislation, put forward by Democratic Senator Russell
Feingold and two other Democrats, was turned down by a vote of
29-67, far short of the 60 votes it needed to go ahead.
Forty-seven Republicans, 19 Democrats and Connecticut
Independent Joseph Lieberman voted against the measure.
The legislation would have put President George W. Bush under
pressure to begin removing US forces within 120 days and after the
March 31st deadline would have cut all funding in Iraq – excepting
for specific anti-terrorist operations, security of US facilities
and personnel and the training and outfitting of Iraqi security
forces.
Among those senior Democrats opposing the legislation was
Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the influential Armed Services
Committee. He supported the rejection, saying that "we don't want
to send the message to the troops" that Congress does not support
them by withholding funds.
The proposal comes as one of four upon which the Senate will
vote, each of which will seek to offer a blueprint for the war,
which has dragged on to its fifth year and claimed the lives of
over 3,300 US soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis. To
highlight bipartisanship, two of the proposals have come from
Democrats and two from Republicans.
The sister statement to Feingold’s proposal would give the Bush
administration the funds it asked for but would set a strict
timetable, setting a March 31 deadline for the withdrawal of all US
troops from Iraq. However, the proposal was withdrawn after a White
House veto threat. The proposal would also have imposed stringent
punishments on the Iraqi government if the body failed to meet set
political benchmarks.
The Senate also turned down a Republican proposal, sponsored by
Senator John Warner, that sought to create political and security
goals for the Iraqi government. In a similar bent to its Democratic
equivalent, this proposal would have reduced US reconstruction
funds to Iraq, should those goals be missed.
The only piece of legislation accepted by the Senate was
nonbinding resolution, which called for a war spending bill to be
passed before Memorial Day.
The US House passed legislation last week funding the Iraq war
on two separate, 60-day installments.
The Democratic-led Congress threatened an ideological clash with
Bush administration last month when it passed its latest war
spending bill. This bill asked the White House to start a
progressive troop withdrawal by October 1, with a goal of ending US
combat operations there by next March, but President Bush used his
executive veto to annul the bill.
(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2007)
