Democratic absences likely to delay war-spending bill

Final action on an emergency war-spending bill will likely be delayed until June as several Democratic senators are expected to be absent this week.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) was diagnosed Tuesday with a malignant brain tumor and will be off Capitol Hill for an indefinite period of time. Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) is getting married Saturday in Los Angeles. Others have expressed to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that they intend to leave before the week ends. Then there are the Democrats’ two presidential candidates, Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), who have been keeping fairly busy schedules outside of Washington.

{mosads}Sensing a weaker hand, Reid lowered expectations Tuesday for finishing the bill before Congress adjourns for its Memorial Day recess.

In a floor speech Tuesday morning, Reid said it is going to be “extremely difficult for us … to get to complete this bill in a timely fashion.” He also said the prospects for securing the necessary 60 votes to win passage of the $194 billion measure are murky.

“In the past, war funding has been [approved] because of a lot of arm-twisting and cajoling,” Reid said. “I don’t know if the votes are here this time.”

Democrats acknowledge they need every vote they can get to push through a complicated package of war funding and domestic priorities in the narrowly divided chamber.

“This is a tough week,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) of the absences and the need to finish a number of priorities before legislative action gives way to the presidential campaign.

Meanwhile, Republicans are still settling on their strategy to force changes to the bill, but are aware that President Bush has threatened to veto the measure.

Democrats have set June 15 as a deadline for getting the bill done. The Pentagon has warned that it may start to lay off employees if more war funding is not approved by that time. Both sides see the bill as one of the last measures to be enacted before November — making it a prime target for domestic policy add-ons.

The must-pass bill contains $165 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more than $25 billion in domestic programs, such as a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits, a delay of controversial Medicaid rules and an expansion of educational benefits for military personnel under the GI bill. It also calls for troops to be redeployed from Iraq by June 2009.

In a formal statement Tuesday, the White House laid out a litany of concerns over the measure, which it vowed to veto.

“The administration believes there is a time and place for domestic funding to be debated and considered on its merits, but that is not in a bill focused on the emergency needs of our troops,” the White House said.

Democrats reacted strongly to the White House’s position.

“Oh my heavens, what hogwash!” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) exclaimed on the floor.

Byrd, 90, who is frail and has been hospitalized twice this year, will not manage the floor debate by himself this week, according to Democratic senators. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) will assist him this week even though she ranks seventh in seniority among Democrats on the committee.

Murray, a member of Democratic leadership, has been rumored to be positioning for the chairmanship should Byrd resign, but she has denied that. Inouye, who is the second most senior senator on the panel behind Byrd, said Murray is managing the floor because other members have obligations preventing them from overseeing the debate.

“For me to manage the whole supplemental, that wouldn’t give me time to rest,” Inouye said, citing his obligations chairing the Commerce Committee and Appropriations Defense Subcommittee.

While Republicans support a number of the domestic provisions on the bill, GOP leadership is siding with Bush’s call to keep the bill tailored to war funding.

Durbin said it might be “tough to find 60 votes for the president’s stripped-down version of funding.”

“I can foresee a scenario where nothing gets 60 votes. And at the end of the week, we don’t have much to show for the effort,” Durbin said. “It will take a bipartisan effort for us to avoid that.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called the process Democrats have employed to get the bill done “offensive.”

“Exactly how we get from where we are today to Thursday is a little bit unclear,” McConnell said.

Further complicating matters is the likelihood that Republicans may seek to raise point-of-order motions to strike provisions that may constitute legislating on an appropriations bill, including the creation of a temporary-worker program for illegal immigrants who work on farms.

Some Republicans are also expected to mount an offensive on the expansion of the GI Bill of rights, which has drawn opposition from Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive GOP nominee.

“That’s not going to make it on the supplemental,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has drafted a less costly benefits proposal with McCain.