WASHINGTON, 13 October 2003 — US senators yesterday predicted a close vote for President George W. Bush’s $87 billion Iraq spending package but not until the reconstruction funding is detailed further, a leading Democrat suggested.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat and the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he “probably will end up” supporting the massive spending package but the administration had so far failed to present a plan for the $20 billion intended for rebuilding Iraq.
“We don’t have the $87 billion that the president needs now. We’re probably going to have to borrow it, and we’ll probably end up giving it to him, but the American people are going to be very resentful about that,” Rockefeller told “Fox News Sunday.”
The Senate and the full House of Representatives this week are expected to consider the $87 billion emergency spending bill, which has been a lightning rod for Democratic criticism of Bush’s handling of postwar Iraq. While the $66 billion requested for US military operations there has met little resistance, various efforts have been made to refine the civilian reconstruction package.
Republicans in a key house committee last week rebuffed attempts to make Iraq repay some of the money. But the measure has a better chance in the Senate, where several Republicans joined by most Democrats are pushing for at least partial repayment. Loans then could become an issue when the House and Senate reconcile differences in their bills before sending the final measure to Bush.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, told the Fox program that two unidentified senators on a five-member Senate delegation just returned from Iraq were now going to support the administration’s appeal for an outright grant for Iraq. “They are now convinced that it does not make sense to encumber this country,” he said.
“I think it’s going to be a close vote but I think the grant proposal is going to win,” McConnell said. “The key is to get on with it. ...The way to get the troops home is to get the reconstruction done.” Rockefeller, however, said he agreed with Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who has questioned the appropriation of the $20 billion for reconstruction “until we see what their plans are.”
“The problem is that nobody has really made plans and ...that is just indisputable,” Rockefeller said.
Bush came under renewed fire yesterday from lawmakers who demanded a clearer plan for securing Iraq and winning international support for rebuilding the country, hours after a car bombing in the heart of Baghdad.
“We need to go to the United Nations more humbly, more directly, more honestly, solicit help in a way that brings the United Nations into this effort, or you are going to continue to see bomb after bomb after bomb,” said Sen. John Kerry, a Democrat hoping to win his party’s nomination for president.
“We’re going to continue to see the mounting opposition to what is essentially an American occupation,” he told ABC television. At least six people were killed in a car bombing outside a Baghdad hotel housing US security personnel and members of the Iraqi Governing Council, the US military said.
The Baghdad Hotel is believed to serve as headquarters for the US Central Intelligence Agency in Baghdad. A US officer at the scene confirmed that US security personnel and contractors live in the building, as well as members of the US-backed council.
Democratic Sen. Joe Biden said the attacks on US-led forces showed the frustration of Iraqis who were beginning to doubt US intentions. “They’re beginning to wonder whether or not we are an occupying force or we’re the liberators because there’s no clear statement made, there’s no clear articulated plan as to how we’re going to transition this power over to the Iraqis,” Biden told NBC television.
“The failure to bring in serious, heavy assistance coming from Europe and Russia and other parts of the world I think reinforces in the minds of the Iraqis and others that, wait a minute, do these guys know what they’re doing?” Democratic Sen. Joe Biden said.Republican Sen. Richard Lugar also urged Bush to reach out to other countries, including France, Germany, China and Russia, for help in Iraq.
“They really owe us for the stability that we are trying to bring about. At the same time, we owe them a genuine attempt to have an international view of this,” Lugar said. But he said the unrest overshadowed positive developments in the country.
“Life goes on in Iraq now, it goes on pretty steadily in most parts of the country,” Lugar said. “There are these sporadic events involving terrorists and they’re horrible, for our troops and for the Iraqi people that are involved. But that is the war against terrorism, as a matter of fact, that’s being fought in Iraq.”
