Deal reached on money for war, hurricane aid
WASHINGTON – House and Senate Republican leaders Thursday finalized agreement on a long-sought $94.5 billion bill to pay for the war in Iraq and deliver a much-needed infusion of relief to Louisiana and other hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast states.
The bill won’t clear Congress for President Bush’s desk until next week, but the official submission of the deal eases Pentagon worries of a money crunch caused by weeks of delays in creating a compromise bill.
GOP leaders overcame the last snag to agreement – insistence by two Senate GOP moderates that the bill include a promise to increase future spending on education and health programs – by winning endorsement from Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Daniel Inouye of Hawaii.
The bill includes $65.8 billion for military operations and maintenance in Afghanistan and Iraq; personnel and energy costs; new weapons and ammunition; and a $2 billion initiative to locate and disarm roadside bombs.
Lawmakers added funding to upgrade Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles for National Guard troops and nearly doubled the Pentagon request for new, better-armored Humvees.
The bill also contains $19.8 billion in new money for hurricane relief along the Gulf Coast, including housing aid and flood control projects for Louisiana, small-business disaster loans, rebuilding federal facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina and replenishing Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief coffers.
The agreement caps weeks of mostly behind-the-scenes talks on Capitol Hill over how to balance lawmakers’ hopes for additional hurricane relief with Bush’s demand that the bill stick to his original $92.2 billion request for Iraq and Afghanistan and hurricanes, with an additional $2.3 billion to combat bird flu.
The Senate-passed version of the bill had exceeded Bush’s request by more than $14 billion, adding large sums for farm disasters, fisheries aid, veterans medical care, port security and to compensate Texas for taking on evacuees of Katrina.
Most of that extra money was dropped, as was $289 million to create a fund to compensate people if they were to be injured by a pandemic flu vaccine.
The last snag involved a demand by Senate leaders to use the must-pass war funding bill to get around a House-Senate impasse over the annual budget blueprint Congress is supposed to produce each year.
The measure endorses Bush’s $873 billion “cap” on the annual appropriations bills Congress passes each year. Under Congress’ arcane budget rules, setting a cap on appropriations bills makes them much easier to pass through the Senate.
But GOP Sens. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Mike DeWine of Ohio sided with Democrats on a House-Senate negotiating committee to insist on $7 billion in additional money on top of Bush’s $873 billion cap for the upcoming annual spending bills. The pair refused to endorse the war spending bill without the additional promises for the future bills.
They wanted to dedicate the $7 billion to health and education programs; the White House and House GOP leaders were dead set against the idea.
“Period,” said House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.
“These are things I care very much about, education and children’s health issues,” DeWine said. But DeWine and Specter were overruled when Inouye and Landrieu signed on to the agreement.