Senate votes to fund wars into 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate has passed $165 billion to fund the war in Iraq until President Bush's successor takes over.

The 70-26 vote came just minutes after a majority of Republicans voted to add tens of billions of dollars for veterans college aid and extending unemployment benefits to the war funding bill.

But Bush has promised to veto the bill if it contains the domestic measures, and the president still has enough GOP support to sustain a veto.

The Senate also voted 63-34 to block a Democratic plan to urge Bush to begin redeployment of combat troops and place other strings on his ability to conduct the war in Iraq.

The House still has to act on the bill. Last week, the House voted to reject money for continuing the war.

The huge tally in the Senate was driven by the popular money to extend unemployment benefits by 13 weeks and providing returning Iraq war veterans with sharply increased college aid.

But dozens of add-ons favored by senators in both parties contributed to the unexpectedly sweeping tally.

Such initiatives included money for Louisiana and Mississippi for projects including levees and coastal restoration.

There's also $850 million for international food aid, $1.9 billion for military construction projects, and several billion dollars in various foreign aid programs -- all requested by the administration.

The war funding measure has had a remarkably chaotic journey through Congress. It's been delayed for weeks as Democrats tried to figure out ways to structure debate to allow themselves to vote against financing the war in Iraq but still ensure that it passes.

The unusual procedure in both House and Senate allowed separate votes on components of the measure to allow Democrats and a few Republicans to tack domestic programs onto Bush's war request, while Republicans would supply the votes to adopt the war funding.

Republicans say the process is unfair, and when the House debated the war funding measure last week, angry Republicans sat out the vote and combined with anti-war Democrats to kill the war funding. But the House easily passed the GI Bill improvements, an increase in unemployment benefits and restrictions on Bush's ability to conduct the war in Iraq.

In the Senate, members of the Appropriations Committee added more than $10 million in discretionary funding not requested by Bush, including funding for grants to state and local police departments, $1 billion for energy subsidies for the poor and more than $1 billion to help Mississippi recover from Hurricane Katrina.

Reid always held a dim view of the domestic extras, knowing they would guarantee a veto and reinforce perceptions that Senate is too profligate. Indeed, Appropriations Committee members treated the war funding bill like the last train leaving the station, and, as a result, added billions of dollars for pet programs.

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