By Emelie Rutherford
The Senate will wait and see what the House does on a proposal to merge fiscal year 2008 and 2009 supplemental war-funding measures into one large bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said yesterday.
House leaders have been weighing a plan to combine the remaining FY ’08 supplemental request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with the expected FY ’09 proposal–the details of which the Pentagon has not yet unveiled–into one large measure costing at least $172 billion, sources said yesterday.
Some aides said the war supplemental could hit the House floor the beginning of May.
Reid yesterday referred to the proposal to combine FY ’08 and FY ’09 war supplemental funding into one spending vehicle “a work in progress.”
He said he met Tuesday night with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) about the supplemental-combing proposal and other issues, and with Senate leaders yesterday morning on “an approach that really feels appropriate for the supplemental.”
“We’re to going wait and see what the House does,” Reid said. “It all starts over there.”
Pelosi did not specifically address the dual-year war supplemental at a press conference yesterday. But she said the supplemental should a have a message regarding the Iraqis taking more responsibility for their country’s security. She added she had breakfast yesterday morning with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
President Bush has threatened to veto the FY ’08 war supplemental if it includes funding beyond the requested $108.1 billion, Office of Management and Budget Director Jim Nussle told Senate appropriators Wednesday (Defense Daily, April 17).
Multiple lawmakers have talked of adding needed domestic funding.
House Appropriations Defense subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) has indicated to the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) he wants added funding for Boeing [BA] C-17 cargo airplanes, C-130 transport aircraft and F-22 jets, both built by Lockheed Martin [LMT], sources said.
The HAC is expected to mark up the supplemental as soon as next week.