US House blocks Iraq war money, sets pullout plan
WASHINGTON, May 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives, in a surprise and largely symbolic move, defeated legislation on Thursday to fund the war in Iraq for another year.
But it also sent the Senate a controversial troop-withdrawal plan that will give that chamber an opportunity to restore the money for waging the conflict, which is deeply unpopular with the public.
With a large group of anti-war Democrats voting against giving the Pentagon $162.5 billion to keep fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through mid-2009, the House defeated the measure by a vote of 149-141.
Meanwhile, 132 Republicans voted "present" -- meaning neither "yes" nor "no" -- on the legislation, which brought another difficult debate about U.S. war policy just as the presidential and congressional elections are heating up and Republicans fear large losses in November.
Some Republicans said they were protesting the way Democrats brought the legislation to the House floor without House Appropriations Committee consideration.
Most Republicans support the money for the war and oppose timetables for pulling troops out of Iraq.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, told reporters he expects the Senate to restore the war funding and give House Republicans another chance to approve it.
The White House has issued a veto threat against setting dates for withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq as part of a war-funding bill. President George W. Bush vetoed such a measure a year ago.
"The legislation provides for a new direction in Iraq that will end this sad chapter in America's history and bring home our brave men and women in uniform," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, told reporters before the vote.
But in the face of the veto threat and Senate Republican opposition, even some House Democratic leaders acknowledged that their troop withdrawal plan likely would be abandoned before war funds are ultimately sent to Bush for his approval.
The House bill "seeks to tie the hands of our military commanders and impose an artificial timeline for withdrawal," the White House said.
Lawmakers may fall short of the goal of passing a final version of the legislation, which also expands U.S. food aid abroad, by the end of May, when a congressional recess begins.
The Pentagon says it needs the money by sometime in June.
MORE THAN $800 BILLION
Under the House-passed plan, U.S. combat troops, who have been fighting in Iraq since early 2003, would begin withdrawing within one month of the legislation being enacted. It would set a goal of completing the troop withdrawals by the end of 2009. Continued...
