WASHINGTON, 11 May 2007 — President Bush, under growing political pressure, agreed yesterday to negotiate with Congress on a war-spending bill that sets benchmarks for progress in Iraq.
The turnabout in Bush’s position came as Republicans expressed anxieties about the war and the House was expected to pass legislation that would cut off funding for US troops as early as July.
Bush said he would veto the measure. “We reject that idea. It won’t work,” the president said, speaking to reporters at the Pentagon after a briefing on Iraq and Afghanistan.
The bill being voted on yesterday was opposed by nearly all Republicans and unlikely to survive in the Senate. But House Democratic leaders say the measure shows they refuse to back down in challenging Bush on a deeply unpopular and costly war.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters he has felt a shift in the administration’s approach to Democrats.
“It’s very clear that the people around the president recognize there are some problems,” said Reid, D-Nev. “And I think I have felt with my conversations with administration officials that there is a right admission that things are not going very well.” Senate Democrats said they anticipate a vote on a war bill by next week, although Reid said it remains unclear what the Senate bill might look like.
“There are 150 scenarios as to how this matter is going to be handled,” said Reid. Finding a bill the Congress will pass and the president will sign is “extremely difficult,” he added.
Bush pressured Iraqi leaders to move swiftly on a number of long-pending measures, including legislation to share Iraq’s oil wealth, hold provincial elections and update the constitution.
“They have got to speed up their clock,” the president said. Washington is unhappy that Iraq’s parliament plans to take a two-month vacation this summer in the midst of the war.
Bush’s willingness to put benchmarks in a war-funding bill represented a shift by the president.
“One message I have heard from people of both parties is that benchmarks make sense and I agree,” Bush said. He said his chief of staff, Joshua Bolten, would talk with congressional leaders “to find common ground” on benchmarks.
White House officials decided Bush, after refusing to discuss his negotiating stand, should change course and declare what he is for since he been emphatic about what he is against.
The Democrats’ bill in the House would provide the military with $42.8 billion to keep operations going through July, buy equipment and train Iraqi and Afghan security forces. Congress would decide shortly before its August recess whether to release an additional $52.8 billion for war spending through September.
