Congress Sends War Bill to the President

Congress sent a war spending bill to Obama yesterday. The bill is aimed at ensuring that troops in Iraq and Afghanistan will not run out of funds in the coming months. This bill is a scope of $106 billion and is referred to as an “emergency war bill”. In true “pork barrel” style, the bill also covers everything from pandemic flu preparedness to a “cash for clunkers” program, hoping to encourage drivers to switch to fuel-efficient vehicles. (Really? War on clunkers? Are we serious?)

The House of Representatives passed the bill on Wednesday by a close 226-202 vote. Despite complaints from several senators about earmarks that pushed the bill more than $20 billion over Obama’s funding requests, the Senate also passed it yesterday with a vote of 91-5. This mean senators like Jon Kyl (R-AZ), John McCain (R-AZ) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) just “held their nose” and voted for it. Opponents in the Senate were Tom Colburn of Oklahoma, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, and registered independent Bernard Sanders of Vermont. (Conversely, Sanders has tended to support the Democrats so far in this session, like in the TARP bill and the health care reform proposals.)

The White House and Democratic leaders were insistent that there will not be another emergency war bill to hit either lawmaking floor that is outside the normal budget, so now was the time to pass it, earmarks or not. Congress has passed emergency war bills every year since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Combined with previous legislation, we are now nearing $1 trillion in emergency war spending, 70% of which goes to the war in Iraq. Obama has noted that future war operation expenses will be paid for by the Defense Department budget.

$80 billion of this bill is set to finance military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the focuses of the military over the course of the last decade or so, through September 30, the end of their fiscal year. Predictions by the Pentagon say that the military would have run out of funds as early as next month without the bill that just passed. It provides $4.5 billion, which is over what Obama requested, for lightweight mine-resistant military vehicles and $2.7 billion for fifteen cargo planes that the Pentagon never asked for.

The bill also includes $10.4 billion for aid and development in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other numerous countries. $7.7 billion has also been dedicated from this bill to pandemic flu preparedness and $721 million will be paid to the U.N. for peacekeeping operations. (Wow, even peace is expensive.) $5 billion was also included to set up a line of credit for an International Monetary Fund loan program for poor countries hit by the global recession we are in. This caused high opposition against the bill in the House leading to a pass by a narrow margin.

Many people believed this bill was also going to include $80 billion the White House requested to begin closing the foreign detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which was not included in the bill. The bill prohibits releasing detainees into the United States and allows their transfer for prosecution, only after Congress receives a detailed releasement plan.

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