Boehner likely to back call for Iraq withdrawal plans

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters Thursday that he would likely support bipartisan legislation that would require President Bush to report on his Iraq withdrawal plans.

{mosads}The bill, H.R. 3087, would require the Bush administration and Pentagon officials to report regularly on the status of their plans for withdrawing U.S. troops.

“I would be shocked if the Pentagon already didn’t have this plan sitting on the shelf. That’s what they do over at the Pentagon: They plan for every kind of contingency known to man,” Boehner told reporters. “So I would expect that, if a bill on the floor looks like the bill that came out of the committee, I would expect all of us to be for it.”

The House Armed Services Committee on July 27 approved the measure by a vote of 55-2.

The measure’s authors, Reps. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) and John Tanner (D-Tenn.), argue that the measure is the best hope for bipartisan compromise on Iraq. But the plan has been bitterly opposed by the leaders of the Out of Iraq caucus, who say it represents “backsliding” and would give cover to politically embattled Republicans, who could tell their constituents they had supported a withdrawal bill without having to defy Bush.