The story

A measure that would have forced the Pentagon to give troops sent to Iraq stateside leave equal to their time in the battle zone was defeated Wednesday evening in the Senate after failing to draw enough Republican votes.

The amendment from Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, won the support of 56 senators, four short of the 60 votes needed under Senate rules to move it forward. A similar measure had failed to gain approval in July.

Webb's amendment to a defense authorization bill had been met by a veto threat from the Bush administration, which argued the amendment would hamstring the Pentagon's ability to deploy troops as needed. Read full article »

CNN's Dana Bash, Lisa Goddard and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.

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