House Votes on Full Iraq Withdrawal

By Matt Renner and Deniz Yeter
t r u t h o u t | Report

Friday 11 May 2007

On Thursday, the House of Representatives voted on two bills to address the stagnant situation in Iraq. The first was a bill that would fund a complete withdrawal of US troops stationed in Iraq within 180 days. Separately, the House also voted to authorize a short-term funding bill to finance the war in Iraq, which Bush said he will veto.

Arguably, the most important floor action that occurred Thursday was a vote to use the appropriation power of Congress to fully fund an expedited withdrawal from Iraq.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) and the Out of Iraq Caucus (OOIC) secured a vote on the withdrawal measure after "months of behind the scenes wrangling." The withdrawal bill was defeated 171-255, but, according to a press release from the CPC, "strongly defied expectations." After the vote was taken, CPC Co-Chair Barbara Lee (D-California) said, "This was an historic vote, and the strong showing in favor of redeploying our troops was a turning point," adding that, "While this measure was defeated today, it will prevail."

The vote to cut off funding for the war in Iraq comes at a pivotal moment. President Bush's popularity is at an all-time low and Republicans in Congress have hinted that time is short for the Baghdad security plan to succeed. On Wednesday, 11 Republican Congressmen met with Bush and members of his cabinet to explain that their commitment to his strategy in Iraq is not open-ended.

Speaking on the House floor in favor of the withdrawal bill, Lee said: "The goal of this bill ... is an effort to fully fund the safe and timely redeployment of our troops from Iraq. It is responsible, it is practical, it does not cut the funding, but it designates what the supplemental can be used for, and that is to fully fund a safe withdrawal and redeployment, and help the Iraqis stabilize their country with a diplomatic, social and reconstruction effort."

Previous withdrawal legislation has not gained traction in Congress, but the Democratic leaders allowed the controversial bill to come to the floor of the House in order to secure the support of the CPC and OOIC for an abbreviated war funding bill.

The Democrats also passed a temporary funding bill in defiance of a veto warning from the president. The temporary funding bill guarantees money for the war in Iraq only until September 30, at which point a new appropriation would be needed. Bush previously vetoed a funding bill that set a suggested withdrawal date and contained benchmarks for the Iraqi government. After hours of wrangling and attempts by Republicans to go into closed session and stall the vote, the temporary funding bill passed 211-205, with members voting largely along party lines.

The passage of the temporary funding bill in the House follows a proposal earlier this week by Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin), who said he intends to introduce legislation later this month that will cut off funding for major combat operations in the region by March 2008.

Feingold's proposed legislation is backed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and eight other Democrats in the Senate, notably Pat Leahy (D-Vermont), Barbara Boxer (D-California) and John Kerry (D-Massachusetts), all of whom are co-sponsors of the bill.

With more than a dozen US soldiers and hundreds of Iraqi civilians killed in combat during the past week alone, Feingold said it's crucial that he and his colleagues take action immediately. "With brave Americans fighting and dying for a failed policy in Iraq, members of Congress shouldn't delay action to end this misguided war for weeks or even months just for the sake of political comfort," Feingold said in a prepared statement on Tuesday. "That is why, when the Senate takes up the Iraq supplemental, I plan to offer the Feingold-Reid bill as an amendment to force the president to safely redeploy our troops by March 31, 2008, at which point funding for the war would be cut off."

Reid said he would ensure that Feingold's proposal is voted on before the Senate adjourns for an extended Memorial Day break.