[StBernard] GOP leaders agree on funds for Iraq, Katrina

[Westley Annis]

GOP leaders agree on funds for Iraq, Katrina 
$94.5 billion compromise bill expected to reach Bush's desk next week
The Associated Press


Updated: 7:42 p.m. CT June 8, 2006
WASHINGTON - House and Senate Republican leaders Thursday finalized
agreement on a long-sought $94.5 billion bill to pay for the war in Iraq and
deliver a much-needed infusion of relief to Louisiana and other
hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast states.

The bill won't clear Congress for President Bush's desk until next week, but
the official submission of the deal eases Pentagon worries of a money crunch
caused by weeks of delays in creating a compromise bill.

GOP leaders overcame the last snag to agreement - insistence by two Senate
GOP moderates that the bill include a promise to increase future spending on
education and health programs - by winning endorsement from Democratic Sens.
Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Daniel Inouye of Hawaii.

The bill includes $65.8 billion for military operations and maintenance in
Afghanistan and Iraq; personnel and energy costs; new weapons and
ammunition; and a $2 billion initiative to locate and disarm roadside bombs.

Lawmakers added funding to upgrade Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting
vehicles for National Guard troops and nearly doubled the Pentagon request
for new, better-armored Humvees.

The bill also contains $19.8 billion in new money for hurricane relief along
the Gulf Coast, including housing aid and flood control projects for
Louisiana, small business disaster loans, rebuilding federal facilities
damaged by Hurricane Katrina and replenishing Federal Emergency Management
Agency disaster relief coffers.

Reconciling differences
The agreement caps weeks of mostly behind-the-scenes talks on Capitol Hill
over how to balance lawmakers' hopes for additional hurricane relief with
Bush's demand that the bill stick to his original $92.2 billion request for
Iraq and Afghanistan and hurricanes, with an additional $2.3 billion to
combat bird flu.

The Senate-passed version of the bill had exceeded Bush's request by more
than $14 billion, adding large sums for farm disasters, fisheries aid,
veterans medical care, port security and to compensate Texas for taking on
evacuees of Katrina.

Most of that extra money was dropped, as was $289 million to create a fund
to compensate people if they were to be injured by a pandemic flu vaccine.

The last snag involved a demand by Senate leaders to use the must-pass war
funding bill to get around a House-Senate impasse over the annual budget
blueprint Congress is supposed to produce each year.

'Period'
The measure endorses Bush's $873 billion "cap" on the annual appropriations
bills Congress passes each year. Under Congress' arcane budget rules,
setting a cap on appropriations bills makes them much easier to pass through
the Senate.

But GOP Sens. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Mike DeWine of Ohio sided
with Democrats on a House-Senate negotiating committee to insist on $7
billion in additional money on top of Bush's $873 billion cap for the
upcoming annual spending bills. The pair refused to endorse the war spending
bill without the additional promises for the future bills.

They wanted to dedicate the $7 billion to health and education programs; the
White House and House GOP leaders were dead set against the idea.

"Period," said House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

"These are things I care very much about, education and children's health
issues," DeWine said. But DeWine and Specter were overruled when Inouye and
Landrieu signed on to the agreement.

Bill breakdown
The $19.8 billion included in the bill for hurricane relief includes:

$5.2 billion for grants to states, with $4.2 billion expected to go to meet
Louisiana's housing recovery needs.
$3.7 billion for federal flood control projects in the New Orleans area.
$6 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster fund. That
includes $400 million for temporary housing sturdier than FEMA trailers. The
funds also go towards debris removal, reimbursing state and local
governments for infrastructure repairs and direct aid to individuals.
$500 million in farm disaster aid for gulf states.
$550 million to rebuild a veterans hospital in New Orleans.
The compromise bill includes Bush's plan to provide 1,000 more Border Patrol
agents along the Mexican border, deploy about 6,000 National Guard troops
and build detention space for 4,000 illegal immigrants.

The bill also contains $4 billion in military and foreign aid for Iraq and
other allies, and to combat famine in Africa and Afghanistan and support
U.N. peacekeeping missions in Sudan.

C 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13211605/


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