War Spending Bill Could Slip Past Recess in Senate
CQ TODAY MIDDAY UPDATE
June 25, 2008 – 1:52 p.m.
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=cqmidday-000002905696
The Senate might not take up the supplemental war spending bill this week, pushing back completion of the measure until after the July Fourth recess.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., Wednesday said a crowded legislative calendar might force Democrats to delay what could be the final vote on the long-awaited measure.
”It’s been difficult to get from here to where we need to be by the end of this week. We still have a lot of things to do,” Reid said.
He blamed Senate Republicans for complicating the Senate’s schedule by holding up action on an unrelated housing bill.
“It is all up to the Republicans. … If they make us wait until after the recess, then that’s what will have to happen,” Reid said.
Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin , Ill., said after the housing bill is finished the Senate would move to a bill overhauling the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and then start work on the supplemental.
Durbin downplayed Reid’s remarks and seemed more confident that somehow the vote on the supplemental would still come before Congress leaves town June 27.
“We want to get it done before the recess,” he said, “I think we can get to it before the recess, but we need some cooperation from the other side and we’re not getting a lot of it.”
The bill would fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for about a year. It would provide for an expansion of veterans’ education benefits, an extension of unemployment insurance benefits and would delay six Medicaid regulations proposed by the administration. The bill also contains money for disaster relief in the Midwest and to rebuild levees in Louisiana.
Meanwhile, the Army is scheduled to run out of operations funds in early July, barring any further reprogramming, and the Army has said it will be unable to pay soldiers after mid-July.
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