WASHINGTON, March 17: The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly endorsed a Bush administration request for $92 billion more for Iraq and Gulf Coast hurricane relief, despite bipartisan worries about the ballooning costs of the war and the recovery effort.
On a 348-71 vote on Thursday evening, Republicans and Democrats joined to pass the measure, eager to demonstrate support for the troops and hurricane reconstruction eight months before the midterm elections.
The bulk of the bill, $67.6 bn, would pay for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Once approved, the money would boost to nearly $400 bn the total spent on the conflicts and operations against terrorism since the attacks of Sept 11, 2001.
President Bush praised the house vote and urged the Senate to follow suit promptly. “This bill will give our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan tools they need to prevail in the war on terror,” he said.
The Senate plans to complete its version of the measure this spring. Congress is to send a final bill to the president‘s desk shortly thereafter.
Also on Thursday evening, the Senate approved a budget plan that would see the federal government spend nearly $2.9 trillion in fiscal 2007, while dropping President Bush’s calls for further cuts in taxes and spending.
Nineteen Republicans, mostly fiscal conservatives, and 52 Democrats, including longtime war opponents, voted against the measure in the house. “Not one more dime for this administration’s ill-conceived, ill-advised, misguided and failed Iraq policy,” said Republican Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Ohio.
But Joe Wilson, a Republican from South Carolina, rejected the objection, saying: “Concerns about the deficit and spending are overridden by the urgent issues before us —- supporting our troops and helping the hurricane victims.”
