War-funding bill gives Democrats leverage on Iraq

WASHINGTON — On the eve of the Iraq Study Group's recommendations for how to exit Iraq, congressional Democrats were eyeing a different document as leverage for change: President Bush's anticipated request for more money to keep fighting.

House Democratic leaders, who will take control in January, said Tuesday they are considering attaching a series of conditions to the estimated $160 billion supplemental war-funding request for Iraq and Afghanistan that Bush is expected to send them early next year.

They wouldn't specify what their conditions would be, including whether they might attach a troop-withdrawal timeline, as many Democratic lawmakers want to do.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said the supplemental-funding request "is going to be the turning point" for the direction of the war. "Those dollars are going to be treated differently," he said.

Majority Leader-elect Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said, "There may well be attached to those $160 billion various parameters that the Congress expects to be met."

The study group's recommendations, to be formally released today after weeks of leaks, aren't expected to trigger immediate results. But a big war-budget request that requires congressional approval could give Democrats a hand in forcing change.

If they use the request to pressure the administration, two political questions arise: Will Senate Democrats have the will or the power to act as boldly as House Democrats? And how far can Democrats push without being accused of cutting off funds for troops fighting on the ground?

Last week, incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., showed little appetite for holding up the supplemental-budget request. "We'll see if there's any fluff in it and make sure there's no pet projects," he said. "But if it's legitimate, I think we'll have to go along with it."

Pelosi agreed. "We will not cut off funding for the troops," she said Tuesday, but added, "The days of rubber-stamping any request by this administration are over."

Thomas Donnelly, a defense-policy expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a center-right think tank, said Democrats aren't likely to play their new power to the hilt but will have room for pressure.

"They could say, 'We're not going to pay the bills for a force larger than X size,' or 'You can't have this money unless you start withdrawing troops from Iraq.' [But] I think they haven't got the votes or the nerve."

Instead, Donnelly said, Democrats could opt for less controversial steps.

"You start demanding a lot of reports. Or you force the president to certify that things are getting better in Iraq. You can refuse to fund certain White House operations. Or they could say, 'I'm going to cut missile-defense funding to pay for war costs, or other executive-branch operations.' "

Bush, meanwhile, was briefed Tuesday on the report by former Secretary of State James Baker, the Iraq Study Group's Republican co-chairman.

Afterward, a senior administration official said, "there will be some disagreements but a lot we can work with." The official said Bush's reaction was "generally pretty positive." The official refused to be identified or to specify the areas of difference or approval.

"We're going to give it a careful review," White House press secretary Tony Snow said of the report.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.

The report also is being published today as a paperback by Vintage Books under the title "The Iraq Study Group Report: The Way Forward — A New Approach."

The Washington Post