House blocks Iraq war money and sets pullout plan

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The 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.

House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio told reporters after the vote that his members wanted a bill that only provides war funds requested by President George W. Bush, without any conditions for withdrawing or unrelated spending.

Shortly after the House vote, the Senate Appropriations Committee granted Bush's full request for war funding. But it also included non-binding language seeking to change the mission of U.S. troops in Iraq, by June 2009, from combat to counter-terrorism and training Iraqi forces.

The Senate panel's bill also would spend about $9 billion more than Bush requested for a variety of programs, which could draw a White House veto. And it inserted other thorny provisions, such as providing $5 million to open a U.S. consulate in Lhasa, Tibet, where China has been accused of human rights abuses.

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, before existing war funds are depleted by next month or so.