Congress Reaches Deal on Iraq, Hurricane Funds

A U.S. Air Force Airman stands at the entry-control point on Balad Air Base, Iraq, May 28, 2006. Congressional negotiators put the final touches on Thursday on a $94.5 billion bill to fund wars and hurricane rebuilding after stripping billions of dollars in projects that threatened to bring a presidential veto. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff. Sgt. Tony R. Tolley/Handout/Reuters)


By Richard Cowan

Jun 8, 2006

Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional negotiators put the final touches on Thursday on a $94.5 billion bill to fund wars and hurricane rebuilding after stripping billions of dollars in projects that threatened to bring a presidential veto.

The full House of Representatives and Senate were expected to vote on the emergency funds in coming days, probably next week, and then send it to President George W. Bush for signing into law.

The biggest chunk of funds, $65.8 billion, would be used to buy equipment for U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon has said it urgently needs the funds.
The money would buy aircraft, new and improved armored vehicles for troops, and more money to train and equip Iraq and Afghanistan security forces.

With U.S. troop deaths and injuries mounting, the measure also funds improved military life insurance and death benefits.

The bill also provides $4 billion in additional foreign aid, much of which would go for projects in Iraq.

U.S. Gulf Coast states, which were hit hard by last year's hurricanes, would get an additional $19.8 billion for rebuilding efforts.

Louisiana could get $4.2 billion in new grants and Mississippi, Alabama and Texas could vie for a further $1 billion.

New Orleans, which was devastated after 80 percent of the city was flooded by Hurricane Katrina, would get an additional $495 million for levee construction and $3.1 billion would be distributed to Gulf Coast states for other flood-control projects.

Bush's border security initiative, which dispatches National Guard troops to the Southwestern U.S. border, would be fully funded at $1.9 billion. The bill mostly ignores the Senate's preference to spend that money on new equipment for border guards instead of on personnel.

CONSERVATIVES WIN CUTS

House Republican conservatives, angered by a series of emergency spending bills that have contributed to huge U.S. budget deficits, won several battles in the compromise bill.

House-Senate negotiators killed all but $500 million of about $4 billion in farm aid the Senate approved earlier this year. Some special projects being sought by Mississippi lawmakers, including a $700 million railroad relocation and funds for Northrop Grumman hurricane-related losses, also were deleted.

The deal also killed about $7 billion in additional funds for domestic social programs that would have been earmarked for next year that moderate Republicans desperately wanted.

Altogether, the bill would spend $14.4 billion less than the Senate-passed bill that provoked a presidential veto threat.

Congress and the White House still face the prospect of huge war costs. With the latest round of emergency funds, the Pentagon will have spent nearly $400 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with no clear end in sight.

The additional hurricane aid pushes that spending to about $90 billion.

Also included in the emergency funding bill is an additional $2.3 billion to prepare for a possible avian flu pandemic.