by Matthew Hay Brown
Congressional Democrats might consider new war funding for Afghanistan before leaving Washington next week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today — but the majority remains opposed to appropriating any more money for the war in Iraq this year.
Pelosi told reporters this morning that an omnibus appropriations package now being drawn up by House Democrats could include money for at least some defense expenditures.
“There will probably be some level of addressing Afghanistan; some of the domestic concerns about – you’ve seen the list that the DOD has come up with – we can address those concerns and certainly, perhaps, if more is needed to do something about Afghanistan,” the California Democrat said.
President Bush has asked for $200 billion in emergency war funding for Iraq and Afghanistan, with no strings attached. Pentagon officials, who say have enough money to fund operations into March, have threatened to lay off civilian employees if he doesn’t get it.
House Democrats approved legislation that would have given Bush $50 billion, but required that he begin withdrawing troops by the end of the year. The bill was blocked by Senate Republicans, and Democrats say they won’t consider any more funding for Iraq before adjourning for the holidays.
Republicans are against breaking up funding for Afghanistan and Iraq.
More Top Picks Abdominal Migraine In Children What Parents Miss
“We have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan who are on the front lines defeating terrorists and helping to protect the American people,” House Minority Leader John A. Boehner said. “And for them to be pawns in a political game here in Washington I think is unconscionable. … Fully funding the troops before we leave here at Christmas is critical.”
Earlier this week, a bipartisan group of House members from Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to make the Army use “every budgetary flexibility it possesses” to delay the need for layoffs.
“Federal civilian employees and contractors are committed to serving this nation and they provide the backbone support for the Department of Defense,” the group of six Democrats and two Republicans wrote. “Proffering furlough notices during the holiday season and not utilizing every effort to prevent furloughs critically undermines employee morale.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said today “there’s no reason to pink-slip anybody.”
“The only way they would be pink-slipped is because of the meanness of the White House,” the Nevada Democrat said. “The president of the United States, through his secretary of defense, told us … that the Army was okay until the First of March, and the Marines okay until the middle of March. So I don’t accept that people need to be laid off.
“But whatever. We’re working, as everyone knows, and getting our spending bills completed. If there’s money in that for warfighting, we will look at it as we have always done.”