WASHINGTON, April 3 - The U.S. Congress by overwhelming votes on Thursday approved nearly $80 billion to finance the war in Iraq, reward key allies, bolster anti-terrorism efforts and help struggling airlines. The Republican-led House of Representatives and Senate passed similar versions of the emergency spending package that gives the Pentagon some $60 billion to fight the war, after Republicans deflected most efforts by Democrats to add billions more to tighten domestic protections against terrorism. The Senate vote was unanimous, while the House vote was 414-12. In key amendments, the House backed President George W. Bush by supporting $1 billion for aid to Turkey which Washington is trying to coax to be a more cooperative ally in the war with Iraq. On another vote, it passed a measure the White House lobbied against to bar money in the bill from going to companies in France, Germany, Russia or Syria to help rebuild Iraq as lawmakers said they should not get business from a war they resisted. The Senate bill did not have that measure.
Lawmakers intend to work out differences between the House and Senate measures, and send Bush a final bill by April 11. The House voted 315-110 to reject a bid to strip the aid by conservatives who argued that Ankara should be punished for refusing to let the United States invade Iraq from Turkish soil, denying it a northern front in the war. Trying to avoid a threat to U.S.-Turkish relations, White House national security advisor Condoleezza Rice appealed to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, a Florida Republican, to fight to preserve the aid in the bill he was shepherding through the House. "Despite the recent difficulties, the president is devoted to maintaining the strategic partnership," Rice said in a letter to Young.
By a voice vote, the House agreed to bar money in the bill from going to companies from France, Germany, Russia or Syria, despite State Department lobbying against the measure. Rep. George Nethercutt, a Washington Republican, called those countries the "coalition of the unwilling," while Rep. Mark Souder, an Indiana Republican, said they "gave aid and comfort to Saddam Hussein." But Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert said the measure would force the United States to bear "a disproportionate share of costs" for Iraqi relief and rebuilding and would undermine efforts to liberalize trade. Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, top House Appropriations Committee Democrat, opposed the amendment but said it was full of loopholes and would have little real effect. Rep. James Kolbe, an Arizona Republican who chairs the Appropriations Committee on foreign aid, hinted that the measure likely would not survive the conference.
MONEY FOR WAR
With both bills, Bush will get all the money he wants for the war, but without the broad discretion he sought over the use of the bulk of the funds -- $60 billion he wanted in a war contingency fund for the Pentagon. Lawmakers from both parties said the White House demand would have let the Bush administration spend huge sums with little or no congressional oversight. Instead, the House bill has a $25 billion emergency fund and the Senate an $11 billion fund, with the rest broken into categories such as personnel, operations and maintenance, and weapons procurement for the various military branches. The White House in a statement said it would work with Congress to get more flexibility to spend the money, but did not threaten to veto the bill. The White House said it would work during the House-Senate conference next week to reduce the more than $3 billion in aid for the airlines that Republican leaders put in both the Senate and House bills. Airlines argue that their business has suffered because of the war, but the White House said the package was excessive.
In a series of amendments, the Senate added $600 million for Iraqi food aid, boosted funds to safeguard urban areas at high risk of terrorism by $500 million partly by shifting funds from other accounts, and added $105 million to help administer smallpox vaccines to state and local emergency workers.//