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DATE/ AUTHOR None	AUTHORS: Jeff Zeleny

H Republicans to Rely on President Bush’s Veto to Block Troop Withdrawal Plan

S1 As the Senate opened debate Monday on a $122 billion Iraq spending bill, Republicans vowed not to allow Congress to impose a withdrawal date for American troops, but said they would rely on President Bush's veto pen rather than procedural maneuvers to block it.

S2 Mr. Bush has vowed to veto any legislation that establishes a specific timetable to remove combat troops from Iraq.
S3 The Democratic-led House has passed such a plan, and Senate Democratic leaders are seeking to advance a similar measure this week, but the party does not have enough votes in either chamber to override a veto.

S4 For weeks, Republican leaders have used procedural maneuvers to delay a debate over Iraq.
S5 But Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said he did not want to hold up financing for the war by spending more time than necessary on a measure that will never become law.

S6 Republicans signaled that they would not use procedural measures to block the bill, but would instead let the White House kill it and then urge Democrats to pass a bill that provides funding for the war without setting any dates for troop withdrawals.

S7 ''We need to get the bill on down to the president and get the veto out of the way,'' Senator McConnell said.

S8 Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic majority leader, played down the veto threat.
S9 In a speech on the Senate floor on Monday, Mr. Reid said the president was on the wrong side of public opinion.

S10 ''He can swagger all he wants,'' Mr. Reid said, ''but we have 3,241 dead Americans.''

S11 The Senate legislation, in addition to financing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the next six months, also would set a nonbinding goal of March 31, 2008, for most combat troops to be removed from Iraq.
S12 The measure calls for a gradual redeployment of forces beginning in four months.

S13 Several Republicans took to the Senate floor on Monday, criticizing Democrats for including about $20 billion for domestic programs in the spending request.
S14 Senators were also considering attaching such issues as the minimum wage increase to the legislation.
S15 The version that passed in the House last week included a long list of items not related to Iraq.

S16 ''Really, what we have is a game of chicken between the House of Representatives that has larded up this appropriations bill with a lot of pork,'' said Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican.

S17 The deliberations on Iraq, the latest in a string of debates between the House and Senate, opened against the backdrop of a nation looking for a new direction in Iraq.
S18 Six in 10 Americans say they want Congress to support a troop withdrawal plan by August 2008, according to a Pew Research Center poll released Monday.

S19 Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said the legislation would force the administration to take a new course in Iraq, in addition to establishing a series of benchmarks for the Iraqi government.
S20 He defended the domestic spending provisions in the bill, particularly drought assistance to farmers and resources to rebuild levees in Louisiana devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

S21 ''Funding for the war is not the only critical need worthy of supplemental funding this year,'' Mr. Byrd said.
S22 ''The war must not obliterate every other concern.''

S23 Throughout several weeks of debate on Iraq, a majority of Democrats and Republicans have voted with their respective parties, creating little legislative progress in the Senate.

S24 But Democrats have not been able to muster the votes they need to overcome legislative roadblocks by Republicans to proposals to set withdrawal dates.

S25 The prospects of this week's Iraq debate remain uncertain.
S26 Even after the Senate advances some type of spending bill, lawmakers will have to reconcile differences in the House version, most notably the withdrawal date, and draft a new proposal altogether if the president follows through with his veto pledge.

S27 ''I can't think of another conflict in which a deadline was set in the middle of the war that one side would withdraw from the conflict,'' said Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the chairman of the Republican Conference.
S28 ''It's a heck of a way to fight a war.''

S29 Several Republicans spoke on the Senate floor during the opening hours of debate on Monday, suggesting Democrats were abandoning the troops.
S30 As he explained the bill, Mr. Byrd, the longest-serving member of the Senate, offered a full-throated defense.

S31 ''The bill before the Senate includes a provision that would give the war a new direction, and points the way out of the civil war in Iraq,'' Mr. Byrd said.
S32 ''There is no restriction on funding for the troops.''

S33 THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ

