House OKs $96 billion for wars

WASHINGTON — The House passed a bill Thursday that would provide more than $96 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through Sept. 30, as President Obama had requested, but a bloc of 51 House Democrats opposed it.

Democratic opponents are accusing Obama of the same charge they leveled against his predecessor: escalating a war without a clear exit strategy.

The 51 Democrats who voted against the bill included an amalgam of liberal lawmakers who consistently have voted against the Iraq war, critics who believe Obama's strategy in Afghanistan is too vague and others who did not want to spend so much abroad.

The bill passed 368-60, with 200 Democrats and all but nine Republicans supporting it.

In the Washington delegation, Democrats Jay Inslee and Jim McDermott voted against the bill, while Republicans Doc Hastings and Dave Reichert joined Democrats Brian Baird, Norm Dicks, Rick Larsen and Adam Smith in voting for the measure. Cathy McMorris Rodgers did not vote.

Democratic opponents did not attack Obama by name, but some likened his increase of 21,000 troops and billions of dollars to the war in Afghanistan to President George W. Bush's efforts in Iraq.

"When George Bush was president, I was on this floor saying we need an exit strategy," said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. "The same applies with Afghanistan. I'm tired of wars with no deadlines, no exits and no ends."

Still, the vote was a rare display of bipartisanship: It marked the first time on a major bill that Obama has relied on House Republicans to make up for defections in his own party. "Today we have before us our first real opportunity to come together," said Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif.

The bill also laid bare Democrats' anxiety about Obama's failure to lay out a clear plan for closing the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility and relocating detainees.

The measure passed Thursday did not include $80 million the administration had requested to pay the cost of closing Guantánamo and, at the last minute, lawmakers added a ban on moving any detainees to U.S. soil until two months after Obama submits a plan for their relocation. That helped sideline a Republican effort to impose even bigger obstacles to closing the facility.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.