Bush assigns chief of staff to negotiate on war funding

President Bush has assigned his chief of staff to negotiate with Congress on funding the Iraq war.
Chief of Staff Josh Bolten is set to meet today with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). National Security Adviser Steven Hadley and Office of Management and Budget Chief Rob Portman are to assist Bolten in the negotiations.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reportedly told Bush that his officials should negotiate with House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.), meaning that both sides have chosen their negotiators but given little solid indication where the negotiations will lead.

{mosads}“We figured out the process on how to move forward,” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Wednesday after congressional leaders met with Bush at the White House.

The meeting came after House Democrats, as expected, were unable to muster the two-thirds majority needed to override Bush’s veto. House liberals who had voted repeatedly against the bill joined their fellow Democrats in voting to override the veto. Seven conservative Democrats voted to sustain Bush’s veto. The Senate did not attempt a veto override.

Aside from the vote tally in the House, 222–203, there were few specifics to be found Wednesday about the next step in the Iraq spending process. Instead there was much discussion of “common ground,” “good faith” and “working together.”

House leaders are hoping to finish a bill and send it to the Senate in two weeks. McConnell said the new bill needs to be done by Memorial Day.

Options on the table include dropping the withdrawal timetable, but funding the war for two months before making Bush come back for more money; funding it until the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30; re-voting the initial use of force resolution; and putting money for hurricane recovery in a separate piece of legislation.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) floated the idea of requiring Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus to report monthly on progress in Iraq.

Lawmakers are discussing including benchmarks for the Iraqi government, including potential penalties, but leaving out any timetable for withdrawal.

But the question of benchmarks is sparking a disagreement between House and Senate Republicans. McConnell has indicated that many members of his conference support the idea of benchmarks to monitor the progress of the war, while Boehner has said he is unwilling to accept benchmarks that include penalties for the Iraqi government.

“The leader — and actually all of us — cosponsored a bill 60 days ago that would put expectations for the Iraqis. There was no interest in that on the part of the Democrats,” Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) told reporters yesterday when asked if Republican leadership supported the idea of benchmarks.

Boehner said the concept of benchmarks was mentioned at Wednesday’s meeting, but not discussed in depth.

Republicans downplayed any disagreement.

“The onus is on the Democrats to come up with a bill the president can sign,” Boehner spokesman Brian Kennedy said.

 After meeting with Bush, Boehner re-emphasized that Congress should send the president a “clean” bill without conditions on funding or unrelated spending.

“It’s time for us to put our differences aside,” Boehner said.

Pelosi said Democrats are interested in working with GOP lawmakers and the administration, though she did not mention the word “compromise” and added, “Make no mistake, Democrats are committed to ending this war.”

White House officials, meanwhile, said congressional Democrats should be more flexible.
“It’s interesting — it appears that the discussion about compromise is all ‘The White House needs to compromise.’ It’s never asked what the Hill is going to do,” said White House spokesman Tony Snow. Snow added that President Bush “feels confident that we are going to get acceptable legislation out of this. How that takes place, we’ll find out.”

See also: Editorial, page 22