Despite Bush opposition, House easily passes ‘Blackwater bill’

Republicans ignored President Bush’s opposition to legislation known as “the Blackwater bill” Thursday, voting in droves with Democrats on the Iraq-related measure.

But Democratic leaders didn’t choose to highlight the rift between House leaders and the Bush administration as they continued to tout their passage of the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) measure that Bush vetoed this week.

{mosads}House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) issued a statement criticizing the administration’s oversight of contractors, but making no mention of Bush’s opposition to the legislation.

“The New Direction Congress is determined to hold private security contractors — and their supporters in the Bush Administration — accountable,” Pelosi’s statement said.

House Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman John Larson (Conn.), whose ad hoc task force recommended the bill to Pelosi, pointed out that it was the second time this week that Republicans had voted with Democrats on Iraq-related issues. The first time was on Tuesday, when Republicans overwhelmingly voted for a Democratic bill ordering Bush to report on his administration’s plans for withdrawal from Iraq.

“With this week’s votes on Iraq, Democrats in the House have successfully forced our Republican colleagues to vote with us,” Larson said.

Republicans saw little advantage in taking the White House’s side on the issue, aides said, particularly when members are under fire on other political fronts.

“We’re fighting the good fight on SCHIP,” a Republican aide said. “This is not something we need to force members to pay the price on.”

During a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Tuesday, however, several Republicans strongly supported Blackwater.

The bill, which would make contractors in Iraq subject to U.S. military law, follows weeks of reports about Blackwater USA’s involvement in a shooting that left 14 Iraqi civilians dead and 18 injured. Witnesses say the contractors fired unprovoked, but company officials insist their actions were justified.

Currently, companies guarding State Department employees, as Blackwater does, are not subject to Iraqi or U.S. military law.

The administration laid out its “strong opposition” to the bill in a statement of administration policy on Wednesday. It stopped short of a veto threat and asked for changes.

That didn’t stop 164 Republicans, including every member of Republican leadership, from voting for the bill. Not one Democrat voted against it. Among the 30 Republicans who voted no included Chris Cannon (Utah), John Doolittle (Calif.), Dennis Hastert (Ill.), Gary Miller (Calif.) and Don Young (Alaska).

“The administration handled this in a very baffling manner,” said Rep. David Price (D-N.C.). “A number of Republicans, to their credit, didn’t pay any attention.”

Republicans offered no amendments to correct problems pointed out by the Bush administration, Price said. But Republicans said they were mollified by a last-minute change — done in a “motion to recommit” — ensuring that the bill does not apply to the CIA and the rest of the intelligence community.   

The next bill in the House leadership’s promised “series” of votes will come next week, when the House takes up a bill by Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) seeking to rein in “war profiteering,” making it clear that fraud laws apply to U.S. taxpayer dollars spent in Iraq.

“It’s important for the American people to know of the fiscal mismanagement, that the taxpayer dollar is not accounted for in Iraq,” Pelosi said.  

Pelosi also said that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani told her that Iraq should be ready to handle its own security by the end of next year.

Meanwhile, support is building in the Senate for the bipartisan withdrawal plan bill passed earlier this week in the House. The legislation would require Bush to report his administration’s withdrawal plans in 60 days, and continue reporting the status of those plans every three months.

The sponsors of the bill, Reps. Abercrombie and John Tanner (D-Tenn.), said that a bipartisan team of senators, including Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), had agreed to sponsor the bill in the upper chamber.

In addition, Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) are interested in proposing it as an amendment to the defense spending bill.

“We’re going to get on the phone and see what we can do in the way of getting some support over there,” Tanner said.