Reid tries to clear the way for Iraq funding negotiations

Story Highlights

• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid moving two Iraq votes into unrelated water bill
• Move takes the controversial timeline debate out of the funding fight
• First proposal would cut off funding for troops after March 30, 2008
• No firm withdrawal requirements in second option; allows Bush to waive timelines

By Lisa Goddard
CNN

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The top Democrat in the Senate announced Monday he is moving two major Iraq votes into an unrelated water bill, a decision that could clear the way for an Iraq funding vote as early as this week.

Congress is under a deadline to pass billions in war funding by Memorial Day, but a Senate debate over attaching timelines could delay the process.

The move by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, takes the controversial timeline debate out of the funding fight, meaning Reid could pass a simpler Senate bill and quickly move into negotiations with the House, where the final funding bill could be sculpted.

The two amendments offer contrasting approaches. The first proposal would cut off funding for all American combat troops after March 30, 2008. Reid signed on to that idea in April, co-sponsoring a bill written by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin.

The other option Reid is sponsoring has no firm withdrawal requirements. That second measure, known as Levin-Reid, takes the Iraq proposal passed by Congress last month and adds one significant change: The president could waive the withdrawal timelines in the bill.

Each amendment would need to get 60 votes to become part of the water bill.

"Democrats believe we should do something very, very close to what was done in the bill that we sent to the president that he vetoed," Reid said.

Under that bill, troops were to begin leaving Iraq as early as July and by October at the latest. It also set a goal of pulling out all combat troops by April 2008.

President Bush has repeatedly stressed his opposition to any specific timeline for the mission in Iraq. He pointed to those dates as one reason for quickly vetoing the April funding bill.

Responding to news that Reid planned to move on a vote for another measure containing a timeline, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino restated that opposition.

"The bottom line is that a date for retreat is a date for retreat, and the president opposes such provisions," she said. Perino did not comment on the Reid-Feingold amendment.

Last week the House of Representatives issued another offer, passing a bill that would fund the war in stages. The bill would have provided about $40 billion up front to fund U.S. combat operations into July. Additional funding would be dependent upon progress in the war, based on a review of how well the Iraqi government was meeting a series of benchmarks.

Again, the president quickly threatened to veto.

The Senate must now decide the next move in the supplemental appropriations debate. The version the chamber passes would still be at risk of a gutting once the Senate and House meet in conference.

CNN's Ted Barrett contributed to this report