Dems short of votes to set Iraq deadline via spending bill

Story Highlights

• House Democrats still short of votes for supplemental spending bill
• Legislation includes deadline for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq
• Several Democrats remain undecided; Republicans united against it
• Defense secretary warns of consequences if funding not provided soon

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Democrats say they are determined to change course in Iraq, but Democratic leaders are still trying to gather the votes to make that happen.

Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel told CNN they're at least one or two votes short of the 218 needed to pass binding legislation with a firm deadline -- August 31, 2008 -- for combat troops to leave Iraq.

It's contained in a supplemental funding bill -- a bill that President Bush has promised to veto if it contains the deadline.

The biggest resistance isn't coming from the other side of the aisle -- although Republicans are mostly united in opposition -- but rather from a handful of undecided Democrats, including freshmen Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Brad Ellsworth of Indiana and Hank Johnson of Georgia.

The list has grown smaller in the last day or so -- anti-war Democrat James McGovern of Massachusetts, who had been on the fence, agreed to vote yes.

"I have come to the conclusion that defeating the supplemental bill before us today would send a message to George Bush and Dick Cheney that they will continue to have a free pass from this Congress to do whatever the hell they want to do," McGovern said during Thursday's floor debate on the measure.

McGovern's not the only one. Maryland's Elijah Cummings -- an anti-war Democrat in his seventh term who sits on the House Armed Services Committee -- told CNN he's been getting mixed signals from his constituents.

Cummings said he's ready to vote yes, and insisted the Democratic leaders have not twisted his arm.

"A vote against the supplemental would cause us to have a stripped-down bill, and there would be no voice saying, 'Mr. Bush, stop this war immediately.' "

The debate on the House floor lasted about four hours Thursday afternoon. A vote is scheduled for Friday, but Democratic leaders say that if they don't have the votes, it won't happen.

To help get reluctant members of Congress on board, Democrats have added numerous "sweeteners" to the $124 billion emergency supplemental spending bill.

It has been loaded with some $21 billion to pay for items not in the original request from Bush to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including $25 million to bail out spinach growers in California hurt by last year's E. Coli outbreak. (Watch critics decry the other "emergencies" added to the bill )

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Thursday the House bill "has zero chance of being enacted into law."

"It's bad legislation; the president's going to veto it, and Congress will sustain that veto," he said.

On the other side of the Capitol, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a version of the supplemental bill that calls for combat troops to be out of Iraq by March 31, 2008. Republicans say they'll fight to strip out the deadline provisions when the bill reaches the floor next week.

Last week, Senate Democrats fell short, on a 50-48 vote, in another attempt to impose a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq.

Once both the House and Senate versions are approved by their respective bodies, a conference committee will hammer out the differences.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates called for Congress to pass the bill quickly, or the military would be forced to take severe stopgap measures because of a lack of funding.

Among those measures, he told reporters, would be slowing deployment of replacement troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and extending the tours of units already there.

"This kind of disruption to key programs will have a genuinely adverse effect on the readiness of the Army and the quality of life for soldiers and their families," Gates said. "I urge the Congress to pass the supplemental as soon as possible."

Snow also called for quick action.

"The clock is ticking," he said. "Money is going to run out for our forces in Iraq sometime next month."

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